Pretty much all of our personal electronic devices use touchscreen control so why not our outdoor gadgets? The big new trend in headlamps is touch activated control. Simply swipe your finger across the housing to turn the headlamp on and off or to change illumination modes. No more fumbling for buttons in the middle of the night.
Nite Ize Inova STS Headlamp ($34.99): This multi-mode dual color LED headlamp uses a touch activated interface in place of buttons. With the simple swipe of your finger, you can turn the headlamp on and off, and switch between 5 different illumination modes in both colors.
The Inova STS headlamp delivers 142 lumens of white light on high, 40 lumens on medium, and 3 lumens on low. Two red LEDs can be used for preserving night vision. Both colors operate on 5 different modes- high, variable dim, medium, strobe, and lockout.
Using 3 x AAA replaceable batteries, the headlamp will run for 4 hours and 40 min on high, while up to 255 hours on low. Waterproof to 1 meter, the Inova STS headlamp is a versatile and lightweight option for handsfree illumination.
Black Diamond Ion Headlamp: Just-in-case lighting meets high-tech with the new Ion headlamp. For Fall 2014, Black Diamond will introduce a completely redesigned Ion headlamp, the lightest, smallest, fully functional headlamp that runs on AAA batteries. Still weighing in at just 1 oz., the Ion features a modern touch-control housing and uses a DoublePower white LED and a SinglePower red LED that emit 80 lumens on maximum power.
Would you like to see more outdoor gadgets use touch activated control?