One of the authors of this project here—<p>We actually iterated a bit on the design since then and removed the dependencies on door hinges and paper plates. The revised^3 design involves scotch tape and a paperclip instead.<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6tgFeBjhVg" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6tgFeBjhVg</a>
The number of simple, yet very cool ideas on HN just baffles me, no wonder HN is an addiction!<p>Selling an add-on/accessory that clips onto any macbook or even any laptop with similar screen properties as the macbook pro used will be a nice little business!
Optical touchscreens! Underutilized technology, IMO. I had a very small part to play in the development of the FlatFrog display system which uses the same approach but <i>inside</i> the glass, using the fact that touching the screen alters the internal reflection properties. <a href="https://www.flatfrog.com/inglass" rel="nofollow">https://www.flatfrog.com/inglass</a><p>I was one of the contract IC designers involved in the custom chip which is deployed all round the display to illuminate/measure. A little single-purpose DSP with an ARM on the side.
I really wish Apple would let me have a touchscreen MacBook at least as an upgrade option.<p>I don't care <i>at all</i> about a touchscreen macOS, I just want to be able to run the iOS Simulator on the laptop when I'm travelling and have touch like I would on an actual phone.
Upon further <i>reflection</i> this is a wonderful idea!<p>A mirror on the webcam reflecting the screen light back, and AI/ML watching the screen's reflection of the finger to see when it touches, can clearly see a touch event.<p>This idea was also re-invented by Carmen Castrejón, as a teaching aid during Zoom classes.<p><a href="https://www.boredpanda.com/teacher-shares-screen-hack-zoom-class/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic" rel="nofollow">https://www.boredpanda.com/teacher-shares-screen-hack-zoom-c...</a><p>She uses a CD as a mirror to point at a pen and paper, with maths homework.<p>Likewise, we can use scrap CDs on the corners of the office, to help people see motion and not collide (bus contention) when turning sharp 90º angles walking out of the washrooms or kitchenette or lab, back into the grid squares of open-plan desks.
I have the 14" MBP and my wife the Surface Laptop 4, and I am envious of her touchscreen. As a free-thinker who sketches ideas on paper and draws arrows between thoughts, doing that on my laptop with a stylus would be _wonderful_.<p>Buying an iPad alongisde my MBP to do this is more than I want to spend. Come on Apple, touchscreen MBPs please.
Reminded me of Johnny Lee and his Wiimote projects.<p><a href="http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/" rel="nofollow">http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/</a>
Slightly OT: I get it on a Surface Pro/Go, but just not on a laptop. I even disabled the touchscreen of both my Dell XPS 15 as I never used it in over 6 years and with the recently reduced bezel even touch it by error when reaching for function keys.<p>Honest question: What do you use a touchscreen on a classic laptop (like MBP, XPS, Surface Laptop) for?
Steve Jobs said the iPad is the product he’s most proud of and it seems like Apple shares that sentiment internally. I use both the Mac and iPad and iPadOS is Apple’s best software.<p>The downside is that it’s not as feature packed because they’re literally reinventing a new computer UI from the ground up. The iPad really is a paradigm shift. MacOS has been around for 40 years. IPadOS only 10. It takes time.
It might actually be useful to show the finger. Think of all the teachers out there trying to direct a student's attention to a particular point on the screen.
Maybe you could do a split view. Or put a servo on the mirror and allow a mode where the finger or a stylus is visible.
Some 15 years ago I rigged up a CRT touch screen using the parallax from two cheap webcameras. It worked, just barely. It was a fun project, if perhaps not the most viable.