Our lab has recently acquired a TouchKit development system. It serves as a basic building block for creating multi-touch screen user interfaces. The TouchKit consists of an infra-red illuminated projection screen and a FireWire camera board. A projector has to be added to complete the system. Here is the initial setup:

The image shows the projection screen in front which is held upright by an improvised clamping board on its right side. The projector throws the image onto the screen from the back, allowing the user to interact from the front. In this initial setup the camera board is mounted on a box and connected to a PC using FireWire. The system has a really interesting principle of operation: as the user touches the front of the screen, the infra-red illumination coming from the inside of the screen changes. This change is picked up by the camera and is further processed by the software API, which is based on the OpenFrameworks C++ library.

Multi-touch user interfaces have become more popular recently with the introduction of technologies like Microsoft Surface, iPhone and CNN’s Magic Wall created by Peceptive Pixel Inc. The last one claims to be the most advanced multi-touch user interface. Here is a video showing its impressive capabilities.

We are still in the process of setting up and configuring our TouchKit system. We will post more information about it here when it becomes operational. Once this is done, it will be a great asset for students in the UbiComp course this fall at UNH taught by Prof. Andrew Kun. Students will be developing innovative user experiences based on the TouchKit as part of their course projects.

Oszkar Palinko

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