Techno Babble

Recently noticed a project which explores how to create a multi-touch whiteboard using a Wiimote (The remote input device that is supplied with the Wii game console).

Essentially you create an LED flashlight that you use as a pen and this is detected by the infrared camera in the wiimote. The wiimote is positioned so that it can see the pen tip at all times and when used in conjunction with a projector it is possible to turn any surface, such as a table-top or even an LCD screen, into a "touch" tablet surface.

The wiimote can be used to track up to 4 devices at the same time so 2 "light pens" can be used to simulate a multi-touch device.

Although the tracking resolution will never be as good as a commercially available device, this system is sure to find an enthusiastic group of users.

More details at

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/projects/wii/

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Recently I noted an interesting video at Channel 9: Inside MultiTouch: Team Demo, Lab Tour which shows an interview with members of the MultiTouch Research team at Microsoft Research in Cambridge UK.

Microsoft is exploring the use of IR technology over the traditional approach of using capacitive touch panels. The iPhone, for example, uses a capacitive touch panel built into the display.

Find out more about the technology used in the iPhone at

http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/index.html#technology

and

http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/index.html#touch

The Microsoft Surface Computing technology uses a rear projection / sensing system that enables a high sensing resolution but is bulky and expensive. The Microsoft MultiTouch approach, however, uses a number of small infrared transceivers mounted on the rear of LCD panels to enable a more compact solution but at a lower resolution (but still sufficient for detecting multi finger touch).

A prototype, developed at MSR Cambridge consists of an array of IR emitters and IR detectors arranged on a tile which is pressed against the back of the LCD display. IR light passes thru the LCD panel and is reflected back to the IR receivers after bouncing off objects such as fingers. The tile consists of an array of 5×7 emitters and receivers to provide effectively a 35 pixel camera element over an area covered by the size of the tile.

Multiple tiles can be combined to cover the whole screen.

The video shows how off-the-shelf LCD displays can be modified to provide the necessary proof of concept of this approach.

Watch the video (approximate 30 minutes) at

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=350838

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Tagged: , Channel 9, iPhone, Microsoft Research, Multi-Touch

As Wacom, the developer of pen-tablet devices and related technology, celebrates its Silver Anniversary it has recently announced a new direction for the future.

Wacom recently announced its new brand concept for the next stage in its growth, building on the vision which has inspired it to create tools that have put high technology into the hands of the world’s most creative people in the simplest and most natural way. This new direction clearly sets out the company’s ambition for continued growth beyond the pen technology it has become famous for. It sets the way ahead for further innovations for anyone who uses interface technology. The announcement of the growth vision has been accompanied by a transformation of the company’s corporate identity and the introduction of a new consumer brand.

Read the full press release at

http://www.wacom-europe.com/uk/press/….id=233&prlanguage=uk#

and visit the re-designed Wacom web-site at

http://www.wacom.com/

Although this could just be seen as simply a re-branding exercise, Wacom introduces the Bamboo range that looks to introduce its suite of pen tablets for navigating, drawing, painting, writing and retouching photographs on a computer, to a home user where previously its product range had been aimed at the creative professional.

Read about the Bamboo range at

http://www.wacom.com/wacombamboo/

or in Europe at

http://www.wacom-europe.com/bamboo/

now if only they would reduce the price of the Cintiq …

A project from Microsoft Research shows how it is possible, using a simple webcam and some specially developed gesture recognition software, to control a computer using single and multiple gestures. Could be almost considered as similar to on-screen multitouch functionality, but the remoteness from the screen may prove a limiting factor.

This item is taken from the original Podtech MS Research video The Gestures of Microsoft Research, A Walking Tour which is worth watching (but is 50 minutes long).

http://www.podtech.net/home/1482/the-gestures-of-microsoft-research-a-walking-tour

Even earlier research, along similar lines, is described at the Theoretical Physics group from the University of Zaragoza in the following article A EyeToy/WebCam Mouse in Visual Basic
http://dftuz.unizar.es/~rivero/alumnos/vmouse.html

Jazzmutant showed a new prototype device for computer graphics involving multi-touch control at the recent Siggraph Conference and Exhibition in San Diego.

This solution will go beyond mere finger-drawing and clearly illustrate a new way to interact and improve productivity with drawing and video editing software. Furthermore, the solution presented will be the very first multi-touch enabled Tablet PC shown to the public.

Pioneer in the multi-touch technology since 2002, Jazzmutant was one of the first companies to develop and market a product using a multi-touch surface, the award-winning Music and Media controller Lemur.

Details about Jazzmutant from their website at

http://www.jazzmutant.com/

The XWand is, or was, a research project by Andy Wilson of Microsoft.

It is a wireless sensor package that enables styles of natural interaction with intelligent environments. For example, a user may point the wand at a device and control it using simpe gestures.

Project details (last updated April 2004) are available from the project page at Microsoft Research

http://research.microsoft.com/~awilson/wand

Questions raised (but not necessarily answered by this project) include:

• What kinds of interactions do users expect? Which are they willing to learn?
• Can the wand be used to contextualize automatic speech recognition?
• How to combine multiple sources of noisy information to arrive at a single interpretation?
• Can a single set of gestures span the majority of applications?
• Is the position of the wand really needed?

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An alternative title is “how to make a mouse work in mid-air”

If you always wanted to make one of these, here are the instructions:

This weeks video picks:

Microsoft Research - Play Anywhere, a portable combined projection and sensing device that enables interactions on everyday surfaces.