Ringbow Adds A Third Control Input To Touchscreen Devices

Ever had the urge to connect a wireless mouse (or some other accessory) to the iPad enabling you to use the tablet in a more traditional manner? Such an accessory was recently announced, and may offer what you are looking for. It works with the help of your index finger and it's called the Ringbow. The device was recently reported on by CNET, and here is what they had to say about it:

"The Ringbow does solve a problem in an elegant way. Touch-screen apps generally have only limited ways to control them, so access to menu commands or secondary functions requires trips to full menus, which slows down the user. The Ringbow is a finger-mounted five-way controller (four compass directions plus pushing down) that makes blasting through accessory menus faster than it would be in most apps. "In a demo (see video; note that the wire is for an extra battery pack the prototype device requires), selecting drawing submenu options (color picker, line weight chooser, pen type), and then making selections in those submenus, was much faster than it would otherwise be. Ringbow CEO Efrat Barit proposes that software vendors who make complex graphical apps (such as Adobe) could make their products easier and faster to use for professionals by adding Ringbow shortcuts. "There are also benefits in games, where a ring-mounted controller adds a lot of control options that one otherwise doesn't have in a touch-screen device."

The impressions seemed quite positive, but will such an accessory really take off for use on touchscreen devices like the iPad or iPhone? I think serious artists could definitely find a use for it if it gets supported by a company like Adobe in the rumored Photoshop for iPad. The idea of having various control inputs without relying on just multi-touch input seems like a good idea for some apps. This would especially be true for games like first person shooters that often rely on two different control inputs; one for movement and one for aiming. The accessory also seems to have interactive features planned for educational, as well as productivity, purposes. Here are some of these features advertised on the Ringbow website:

• Introducing the first peripheral device for enhancing touch screen interfaces.
• Make any touch screen the meeting ground for multiple users with a single co-operating system.
• Discover the better and more enjoyable way to interact with your touch screen.
• Ringbow introduces “Touch Flavor“, the most advanced way to interact with your touch screen. By using Ringbow, a user can control the context for touch functions, and can even let the touch screen know which finger of which hand is touching it.
• Ringbow is a pioneer in finger-based interfaces and presents “The Thumb Revolution“. Using the thumb to operate the Ringbow device, a user is never bound to the sensing surface of a touch screen, allowing much greater freedom and convenience in interactions.
• Ringbow multiplies the functionality of touch, enabling a much more advance way to control touch screen interfaces. Now you can perform complex operations quicker, more effectively and naturally.
• Multiplying the functionality of touch screens is a breakthrough, giving rise to a wide variety of new types of interactions, some of which combine touch and at-distance control.
• Many different combinations of touching and operating Ringbow open up a whole new world of features. Some of which cannot be achieved otherwise, such as simultaneously using the Ringbow device and performing a touch operation.
• Ringbow can also be utilized for user identification. As demonstrated in the clip above, different interface elements (tanks, in this example) can be assigned to different users. With this, a whole new dimension of gameplay and group dynamics can be available to any number of touch screen users.
• By assigning control of certain operation to Ringbow, the need to display virtual controls is eliminated, thus taking advantage of more screen space. In the clip above, for example, changing weapons is done “outside” the display area, so no weapons-menu needs to be presented.

No release date or price has been set as of yet. So what do you think? Will this thing take off, or be just another failed peripheral? We think it will depend on how well it is implemented, the price, and if Apple supports it like they did with the Square credit card reader which is sold in Apple Stores. Be sure to share your thoughts in the comments.

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