Make every surface a touch screen
March 8, 2012
The Wearable Multitouch Interaction system enables any surface to be used as a touch screen (credit: Microsoft Research)
Developed by Microsoft Research, Wearable Multitouch Interaction turns any surface in the user’s environment into a touch interface.
“We wanted to capitalize on the tremendous surface area the real world provides,” explains Hrvoje Benko, of the Natural Interaction Research group.
“The surface area of one hand alone exceeds that of typical smart phones. Tables are an order of magnitude larger than a tablet computer.”
The Wearable Multitouch Interaction prototype is built to be wearable, a novel combination of laser-based pico projector and depth-sensing camera.
The camera is an advanced, custom prototype provided by PrimeSense. Once the camera and projector are calibrated to each other, the user can don the system and begin using it.
“This custom camera works on a similar principle to Kinect,” Benko says, “but it is modified to work at short range.
The team stresses that, although the prototype is not as small as they would like it to be, there are no significant barriers to miniaturization and that it is entirely possible that a future version of Wearable Multitouch Interaction could be the size of a matchbox and as easy to wear as a pendant or a watch.
Comments (4)
by Travis Deyle
There were some early examples of this type of interaction for robot interfaces: http://www.hizook.com/blog/2008/12/01/video-projector-shows-robots-intentions Since kinects are already ubiquitous on robots, it makes perfect sense to apply this sort of “conformal” display + interface more broadly in robotics…
by Pauldenice
You may want to start with Pranav Mistry source code on the internet, by searching “Six Senses” via your favorite search engine.
The hardware is now cheap enough, it is the software that required so much development. and Pranav made it available as “Open source code”
Watch the video if you want to know more about Six Senses
Here is the link again.
by Pauldenice
Nice video about ” Wearable Multitouch Interaction turns any surface in the user’s environment into a touch interface.
Developed by Microsoft Research,”
Interesting but a far more convincing demo was made about Pranav Mistry Six Senses project in November 2009.
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/lang/en//id/685
And in the end Pranav Mistry said he would make the code opensource on the internet.
Did Microsoft use that code, or did Microsoft reinvent the concept ?…
Paul
by The Sky Hedgehogian Maestro
Now make one cheap enough for consumers and we at the Global Transhumanist Forum will find a way to make a touch screen house.