Interactive interface projectors can turn almost any hard surface into a touchscreen. The highly mobile devices project an image onto any nearby surface, turning hands, walls, books, tables, and almost any other flat surface into a keyboard or keypad. This impressive mobile technology is not a new development. However, kinks with the technology have kept the devices from being practical. Some early models could only clearly display images on or near the user’s body, making it difficult for multiple users to see the device or for a single user to work on a surface larger than her hand or arm. Other early models corrected this problem but required the users to wear sensors on their fingers. The sensors though, could not accurately determine whether a finger was actually touching the keypad or was merely hovering over the keypad.
Microsoft’s new prototype, the OmniTouch system may have solved many of the problems with earlier models. The OmniTouch system utilizes a projector and camera combination which are worn on the user’s shoulder. The camera is used to create a depth map, which can be projected clearly onto a surface, regardless of the surface’s distance from the projector. The depth map allows the system to determine the position of the user’s fingers in relation to the surface, eliminating the difficulty with sensors placed near, but not on, the screen itself. The OmniTouch system was presented last month at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, in Santa Barbara, California. As of yet, Microsoft has not made any announcements about whether the OmniTouch will be made commercially available.
For more information visit: Gizmag: OmniTouch turns any surface into a touchscreen interface.