cypress Imagine if your e-book reader could sense your finger approaching its screen without actually touching it. That’s the possibility offered by an intriguing new technological development from Cypress Perform, maker of the touchscreen for the Palm Pre.

The video suggests it could be used for creating a magnifying bubble over a web browser to allow more easily selecting a link. I could see that being useful for e-book readers, too, especially for books that have footnotes. Certainly it would clear up one of the big problems with touchscreen interfaces for fine tasks: you can’t actually see what’s beneath your finger at the time you’re tapping.

And who knows, it might also reduce the number of fingerprint smudges on the screen.

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