interface

Brain implants let paralyzed woman move robot arm

Jan Scheuermann can't use her limbs to feed herself, but she's pretty good at grabbing a chocolate bar with her robot arm.

She's become the first to demonstrate that people with a long history of quadriplegia can successfully manipulate a mind-controlled robot arm with seven axes of movement. Earlier experiments had shown that robot arms work with brain implants.

Scheuerman was struck by spinocerebellar degeneration in 1996. A study on the brain-computer interface (BCI) linking Scheuermann to her prosthetic was published online in this month's issue of medical journal The Lancet.

Training on the BCI allowed her to move an arm and manipulate objects for the first time in nine years, surprising researchers.

It took her less than a year to be able to seize a chocolate bar with the arm, after which she declared, "One small nibble for a woman, one giant bite for BCI." Check it out in the video below. … Read more

Design guru Nielsen: Windows 8 UI 'smothers usability'

User interface design guru Jakob Nielsen is none too pleased with what he's found in Windows 8, which he calls a "misguided" product.

Nielsen, who has spent much of his career analyzing all kinds of user interfaces, including most notably Flash software for Web animation, says that the new Windows 8 user interface "smothers usability with big colorful tiles while hiding needed features."

To arrive at that conclusion, Nielsen brought in 12 "experienced PC users" to try out Windows on both PCs and Surface RT tablets. In that study, Nielsen found that the … Read more

Sony unveils redesigned PlayStation Store

Later this month, those who access the PlayStation Store on PS3 may notice a swankier storefront.

More than four years since the last major revision in appearance, Sony announced today an incoming redesign for the PlayStation Store due in the U.S. on October 23. The refreshed arrangement of the Store utilizes larger graphics to advertise content; streamlined navigation; and an improved search system. … Read more

NTT DoCoMo Grip UI: Look ma, one hand!

NTT DoCoMo has always showcased interesting concepts at trade shows. For example, we saw a breathalyzer in a smartphone and an ultra-high-speed charging jacket at Mobile World Congress earlier this year.

This time, at Ceatec in Japan, NTT DoCoMo has come up with a concept handset that can be operated with one hand simply by gripping it in various ways.

The Grip UI, which is really a combination of hardware (pressure sensors on the back and both sides of the phone) and software, can be applied to activate shortcuts for opening apps or unlocking the phone. … Read more

Eye-controlled 'i beam' tablet lets you strap-hang safely

Japan has some pretty high-tech trains, but bumpy rides are still common. If you're squashed between dozens of commuters and gripping a strap with one hand while holding reading material in the other, turning the page as the speeding carriage lurches to and fro can be downright dangerous.

That's why NTT DoCoMo has developed a prototype tablet that you can control with your eyes. The "i beam" has a gaze-tracking function that frees your other hand so you can hang on to that subway strap, or, for instance, pull a suitcase around if you're walking through an airport. … Read more

Home networking explained, Part 3: Taking control of your wires

Editors' note: This post is part of an ongoing series. For the other parts, check out the related stories.

Now that you have learned about the basics of home networking in Part 1, and how to optimize your Wi-Fi in Part 2, in Part 3, it's time to get your hands dirty and learn how to take control of your network completely.

All home networks start with a network cable. Even if you plan on using all wireless clients, in most cases you will still need at least one cable to connect the wireless router and the broadband modem. … Read more

Top news-reading apps for the iOS touch screen

The iPad is great for many things, but one of the best uses for me is relaxing on a Saturday and flipping through the latest news. There are plenty of basic news apps that grab all the latest headlines for you, but some offer a sleek layout that lets you browse the news using an elegant interface.

I recently reviewed Trapit for iPad, a fairly new newsreader you can train to give you the latest stories about any subject. You simply search for a keyword and Trapit makes a "Trap" of the latest news stories on that subject … Read more

Can Windows 8 win over CNET's Mac reviewer?

Apple's Mountain Lion and Microsoft's Windows 8 are now out in the real world. And this time more than ever, the two companies are taking the computer into two distinct directions.

After using both of the new operating systems, it's easy to see that each is more solid, more stable, and filled with more-compelling features than ever before. It's also true that Microsoft's radical new operating system is gorgeous, but this is not a beauty contest. Like I pointed out in my review for Mountain Lion, I still think Apple made the better choice in … Read more

Home networking explained, Part 2: Optimizing your Wi-Fi network

Editors' note: This post is part of an ongoing series. For the other parts, check out the related stories.

Since my last post on the basics of home networking, which is Part 1 of this series, I've been flooded with even more e-mails than I had been before (which explains why some of you haven't heard back from me). The good news is that nobody is asking about what a router is anymore. I guess I did an OK job explaining that in my previous post.

Most of the e-mails this time asked about how to have the … Read more

Some Retina MacBook Pro owners seeing interface lag

Some owners of Apple's new Retina MacBook Pro are finding that instead of a smooth interaction with the OS X interface, the systems display relatively choppy behavior and may be slow to respond with moving windows, scrolling, and using Expose among other similar tasks. This problem seems to happen primarily when using Safari, Mail, and Mission Control features, but it also occurs in other programs.

Since the debut of the Retina MacBook Pro there has been some discussion over whether the system's hardware is capable of handling the computational throughput required by the Retina Display. In a recent … Read more