Windows 8 will be released with a touch screen interface but let's face it; PC users will be used to using a touch pad for accessing the operating system on notebooks. Enter Taiwan-based company Synaptics who is developing a multi-touch click screen designed specifically to use the touch features for Windows 8.
In a press release today, Synamtics stated, "The preferred MetroUX touchscreen experience will utilize a Synaptics TouchPad for fast and fluid navigation, replacing the standard keyboard and mouse that users experience with a typical touchpad."
You can see a video demo of how the Synamtics technology would be used on a notebook touch pad in the video above this post. The touch pad allows the use to move Windows 8's Metro-style tiles around with no need to actually touch the notebook screen. It can also be used to manipulate touch-based applications such as a virtual piano keyboard.
The obvious advantage is that users don't have to put their fingerprints on a notebook's screen in order to use the touch features on Windows 8. Synanptics claims that their touch pad technology will be able to allow notebook owners to use up to 10 fingers at the same time for using Microsoft's next operating system.
There's no word on what notebooks will be using Synaptics' touch pad hardware but you can bet that a number of them will have this pad installed when Windows 8 launches, hopefully, sometime in 2012.
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