Soon You Will Be Able to Add Touch Screen Capabilities to Your MacBook

We saw some pretty neat and interesting technology debut at CES this year, indeed. However, perhaps one of the most fascinating new pieces of tech goodness is a seemingly simple, USB-powered peripheral for your laptop computer — which effectively turns your non-touchscreen PC or Chrome OS netbook into a fully functional touchscreen computer.

AirBar is a revolutionary new product from a company by the name of Neonode. Much like a USB-powered mouse or external storage drive, AirBar plugs into any available USB port on your PC laptop, magnetically connects, and rests, unobtrusively, at the bottom of the display bezel. In fact, Neonode’s AirBar is so thin, so light, and consumes such little space at the bottom of your laptop’s display, if you’re using a black or dark grey colored notebook, chances are you might not even be able to tell it’s there in the first place.

According to Neonode, the AirBar utilizes a stream of invisible light rays, which are omitted from the device, to detect when and where your finger is placed on the screen, and, in turn, provides feedback to the computer accordingly. Best of all, however, Neonode says the AirBar is plug and play — meaning it will require no additional software drivers — and, after projecting a thin beam of invisible light across your display, you can then poke, pinch, zoom, swipe and scroll around exactly how you would on a traditional touchscreen.

Neonode says the AirBar will work with “most laptops” — however, it appears to be exclusive to those running Windows or Chrome OS — and will be available in a number of sizes, including 11.6-inch, 13.3-inch, 14-inch, and 15.6-inch variants, all of which will run you the same price of $49. Neonode is currently working on Mac compatibility which will be available “soon”.

Touch-friendliness has been one of Windows PC’s hottest selling points — ever since its commercial introduction of multi-touch in select PCs from the dawn of Windows 8. And, while a majority of Windows PCs today feature multi-touch input by default, there are a number that are still beholden to the good old click and swipe touch-pad. There are, of course, a number of 3rd party touchscreen enabling peripherals on the market today — such as fancy styluses paired with infrared receivers or even an assortment of full-blown touchscreen overlays. However, most of them are either far too expensive to warrant the investment, or lack in functionality, altogether.

Neonode is hoping to seize on that opportunistic gap in the 3rd party touchscreen peripheral market with its modestly priced AirBar, which should be hitting the market, according to company representatives, sometime this May.

Learn More: Your Next MacBook Could Feature 1,000x Faster Memory with New ‘Optane’ Technology

What do you think of an after market touchscreen peripheral like the AirBar?