CMU Researchers Turn Any Surface Into A Touchscreen

Bob Lawrence (VE1RLL)

Soon you, too, will be able to talk to the hand. A new interface created jointly by Microsoft and the Carnegie Mellon Human Computer Interaction Institute allows for interfaces to be displayed on any surface, including notebooks, body parts, and tables. The UI is completely multitouch and the “shoulder-worn” system will locate the surface you’re working on in 3D space, ensuring the UI is always accessible. It uses a picoprojector and a 3D scanner similar to the Kinect.
The product is called OmniTouch and

Complete Story:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/17/cmu-researchers-turn-any-surface-into-a-touchscreen/


Demo Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Pz17lbjOFn8

bill190

Hummm... Could you point this at the coffee table in front of the sofa, then the table becomes a remote control?

Or how large could a "button" be? Could a dog stand on a certain spot, then a door opens?

Or could a person stand in front of your front door, then a doorbell rings?

rod1963

Hmmm, I see much hilarity arising from this invention. Meld it to a hands free cell phone and you'll have people waving their arms in the air, poking at imaginary things or even people's chests and faces should they be too close to it's operator whilst yammering on their cell phone.

Twitter users will be even more amusing and rude with this as well.

bill190

Or actually that could solve the cell phone small keys and people with big fingers problem...

Point the cell phone at something, then you have a regular sized keyboard!

Bobb Fwed

I saw a most basic version of this technology 8 years ago at CES in Las Vegas, where they could project a QWERTY keyboard onto any semi-reflective flat surface and allow you to type (granted, it was quite limited on adequate surfaces).

This is way cooler, and way more powerful. And my only question is, how do we integrate this into the Propeller / P2?