A story about the innovative, aluminium touch interface on BeoPlay H8.
Swipe Left & Swipe Right
BeoPlay H8 gives you complete control over your music and telephony right from the touch interface placed on the ear cup.
With simple intuitive gestures on the aluminium surface you can turn the active noise cancellation on and off, you can adjust the volume and jump back and forth between songs on your playlists – and when the phone rings, a short tap on the ear cup lets you answer while a second tap hangs up. It’s as easy as tap, swipe, and turn.
WHAT EXACTLY TO DO?
Circular movements along the milled recess turn the music up or down.
Horizontal swipes left and right let you hop around the tracks on your playlists.
HOW?
The touch interface is made of milled aluminium, that’s been sun-polished and anodised. The aluminium plate is 0.3 mm thick, and it hovers a few tenths of a millimetre above a print plate filled with electrodes. Once you place your finger on the aluminium plate it bends towards the electrodes that are laid out in a pie chart.
The amount of signal on the electrodes determines the placement of the finger – and the motion of the finger determines the subsequent command. As the touch interface is pressure sensitive you can even wear gloves and still be in full control. This comes in pretty handy in cold climates such as ours here in Denmark.