maximumpc.com — It all started while we were researching an article on future user interfaces. Touch interfaces are hardly futuristic at this point, but multi-touch hardware like the Microsoft Surface or the iPhone is just starting to become a big deal, and we decided to see what big things are going on in that field. What we found that surprised us..
Apr 6, 2009 View in Crawl 4
zzzpoohzzzApr 7, 2009
yeah i remember when i was going to make a DIY projector... nope that never happened, and neither will this...good for them though!
j0hnglistApr 7, 2009
sweet another awesome toy I dont have the skills to buildps: maybe I should have paid more attention in woodshop class
digitalpencilApr 7, 2009
^ MS Surface is a different kettle of fish to these home-brew affairs. It uses multiple cameras, a HD short-throw projector, and what I imagine to be some sort of RFID system to detect specific devices when placed on the FTIR pane.. Then you've got the software.Not saying it isn't possible, just that you'd probably be looking at at least a couple of grand to get something of a similar quality and it still wouldn't be enterprise-ready.
peauproductionsApr 7, 2009
danwallace:: You asked a question that many of us working on these things also ask. Many of us have realized that hardware for these optical-based MT setups is fun to build and prototype, but when you have a finished product, no one is going to use it for more than a few minutes unless it is actually useful. Multitouch input has a kind of misconception. Many people think of a single user interface, where you try and use multiple inputs whereas much of the future for multitouch will probably be multiuser, single input. The scenario is similar to a business meeting: where you have multiple people around a table each offering their single input.For those of us developing MT software, it is this hurdle to not only design collaborative and interesting software, but also usable single user software that can be implemented with it.I agree with you that the future average single user wont use a terrible amount of MT input. I run windows 7 on my dell XT laptop, which with the N-Trig drivers allows full multitouch. Software content isnt much yet built with the touch user in mind, though Microsoft has put a good effort in with their newest OS. There are tasks though that are better and more intuitively done with a finger, such as simply clicking on buttons. Those of you who own iPhones probably know that when an interface is built with touch in mind, it can greatly facilitate what you are trying to do.With that said, as I said before, the hardware side of things has been around awhile, but it is the software side that still needs the usability and useful factor pumped into it if MT through touch has any chance of becoming more mainstream.
atheuzApr 8, 2009
So how much would this even cost and what's the difficulty of making one of these with no prior experience with this sort of thing?
techguy82Apr 9, 2009
Truly amazing!
cosmicrApr 17, 2009
So has anyone actually built one of these yet? I'd love to see photos of other peoples attempts.