Transform your boring ol' laptop into one with touchscreen capabilities

Do you want to have a laptop with touchscreen capabilities but don't want to upgrade from your current laptop? Or is there a computer out there that you are planning on purchasing that has everything you need - except a touchscreen? Well, look no further. Winner of the Innovations Award at Consumer Electronics Showcase 2017, AirBar is a device that brings touchscreen technology to any laptop.

Design and Technology

As you can see in the picture, AirBar is a small bar that sits right under your laptop's screen. It comes in three different sizes: 13.3-, 14- and 15.6-inch. You'll need to make sure you get the correct size for your laptop, because any variance in size means that it will be less accurate translating your gestures to the screen. A cord protrudes from the right side of the AirBar and plugs into your USB port. It comes with two magnets that you attach to your laptop directly under the screen, and then just connects to those. When you need to shut your laptop, simply remove the AirBar. And don't worry about forgetting it's there and attempting to shut your laptop - it will detect your hand at the top of the screen about to close it and emit warning beeps. 

So how does it work? Using Neonode's zForce AIR technology, the sleek bar simply projects an invisible light field onto your screen that enables it to respond to you "touching" the screen. It allows you to interact with Windows 8 and 10's gesture system. It is also coming soon to Macs, so fret not. And, because it uses a light field and responds to any "disturbance" to that field, you're not limited to using just your bare finger tips to interact with the technology.

Not everyone needs a touchscreen. But, if you're one of those people and don't have the means to switch over to a touchscreen laptop currently, then AirBar is a fantastic option. It doesn't have all the capabilities or precision that a built in touch screen would have - it can only respond to two points of touch. But, for only $69, it gets you most of what you would want in a touchscreen: navigation, pinch-to-scroll zooming, and scrolling. 

You can read more about it on its website here, and read reviews and purchase it on Amazon.