multitouch table experiment
This is an experiment based on “frustrated total internal reflection” aka FTIR.
This is a very basic demo and we did it just to see how it work and it took us just 4 days!
The most difficult part is seting-up the hardware, in the following list you can see what we used:
- 1 panel of plexiglass 8mm thickness
- 2 strips of IR LEDs (18 LED per strip)
- 2 sheets of tracing paper
- 1 projector
- 1 mirror
- 1 analog camera sensitive to IR light
- 1 IR filter for the camera
- 1 computer
The traking was done using vvvv.
here you can see some photos of the setup
the two LED strips its must be placed on the edges of the plexiglass panel (more strips and more LEDs is, of course, better).
here you can see what happen inside the panel when you touch it (FTIR) :
Image credit Jeff Huan http://www.cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirsense/ftirschematic.gif
When you are done with this part most of the work is done!
Place the camera underneath the table, the camera must be IR sensible (almost all digital cameras, including webcams, are but they are usually fitted with an IR filter that cuts all the IR light. We must open the camera and remove it!).
Put a visible light filter in front of the camera (one of the best is just the black tail end of developed slide films).
Put the projector underneath the table with a mirror reflecting the image on the projection surface. This is needed just to be able to place the projector in a comfortable horizontal position and to gain a bit of image size.
ok have you done it?
connect all to the computer, download vvvv software from their web site (it’s not open source, but until you are using the software for non-commercial projects you don’t have to pay for using it!)
it’s a visual programming language, (like puredata, max-msp, eyesweb and so on) very easy to learn, very well done, and very robust.
Go though the tutorial, and, maybe in a couple of days you will be able to do very beautiful things.
Alessandro masserdotti
dotdotdot.it
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Image credit : http://www.cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirsense/ftirschematic.gif
would I like to realize a prototype of the touch screen, could you make the patch of vvvv have me?
thanks thousand
You might should change “analog camera” to “digital camera” in the parts list.
Very nice, but what are the two sheets of tracing paper for?
wasn’t it about time you posted an article?
nice one, alessandro.
u
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That’s very cool – what kinds of things (other than fingers) will reflect the IR down to the camera? I’m thinking like little wooden blocks maybe?
Great demo of the technology.
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could you link up the vvvv patch you used? would like to see it as a refrence.
what is a good place online to get the IR LED strips and what kind of camera do you recommend?
For the people who are interested in building a screen like that, you can visit http://nuigroup.com
This is the blog of our multi touch open source community. We have wiki and forum as well.
There are discussions about hardware and software (VVVV, processing etc).
You can also contact us on #ftir on irc.freenode.net
My personal blog is located at http://www.multitouch.nl
To the author of this page: Nice blog on this experiment. Our community found the movie on youtube, we were just wondering who made it. Anyway, thanks for your efforts towards other people for blogging this.
Gravano
@Bjorn:
The tracing paper is taped to the top of the plexiglass. It’s translucent enough to show the image being projected from underneath and hides the equipment below. It also gives a nice surface to move your hands over and eliminates fingerprints.
You can see the paper in the first image.
Kiliman
[...] a link on how to build [...]
Just a few updates…
Tinker.it will be selling a kit for the hardware parts in a few weeks… as far as the patch goes a basic one will be included in the kit..
massimo
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I wonder if frosted glass will work better than tracing paper? Will the led still work with frosted glass?
Massimo,
I’d be careful about selling kits – I understand that Apple have patented the technology. As I undertand patenting, selling a kit would infringing that patent, and thus could get you a big old slap on the wrist.
A.
Andy
Apple can file as many patents as they like but there is SO MUCH prior art on multi touch interfaces that they might be the ones getting slapped on the wrist (not by me…)
Our kit will be just for the electronic and mechanical parts needed to make a screen… I want to see somebody complaining because I sell an LED bar….
I wonder if they have ever seen a lemur…
PS the USA is not the world… it represents only a small part of it :)
Apple’s multitouch technology uses a different method than this. They bought fingerworks/touchstream a couple of years ago, and I believe those are the patents and technology they use in their iPhone.
see http://fingerworks.com/ and http://fingerfans.dreamhosters.com/
I believe there is a link to the paper on how that technology works in the fingerfans forum.
[...] tinker.it » Blog Archive » multitouch table experiment – Link. [...]
[...] from jeremy but I have to second it… frustrated internal reflection is your friend… http://tinker.it/now/2007/02/28/multitouch-table-experiment/ [...]
Whats interesting people show a final working project and give DIY instructions on how to build the “project” but all ways leave out the total software end but only give you the basics…
I want to see a VVVV Patch that makes use of the blob tracking to generate some sort of graphical response. Yet no ones taken the time to put one online.
[...] follow his instructions and try it for [...]
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Hello, you it could send the source-code of the software of touch recognition?
I would like to duplicate this for a class presentation. Is there anyone online that can offer up a step by step direction and also help on VVVV? I am an industrial design student and not a programmer. Any assistance would be much appreciated. Thanks.
hi Alessandro, FTIR interested readers
i have used your site as a good help for building my own FTIR device. i’ve documented the whole process, from building the hardware to the software part using blob detection. see http://lowres.ch/ftir for more infos and source.
best regards,
thomas
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