Lurking in the labs is a fast, growing technology that will make its way to home computers all around the world. It has already been put into commercialized production and is rapidly developing. I would like to take a moment to look at how this technology will affect us, and how to explore it yourself (on a low cost budget of course).
Multi-touch technology has revolutionized the way we interact with the user interface. Hand gestures, movements, and tracking have opened way to more “human” interaction with computers. You’ve probably experienced it on your iPod or iPhone. But what you might not know, the technology has been around for quite a while now. And it’s rather cheap to explore for yourself.
One of the multi-touch solutions that has been developing over the past several years now is FTIR (Frustrated Total Internal Reflection). In layman’s terms, infrared LED’s (Light Emitting Diodes) shine light into the sides of an acrylic sheet. This infrared light is reflected internally within the walls of the acrylic. Once a finger touches the surface of the acrylic, the infrared light is “frustrated” and reflected in an outward direction. Using an infrared camera, we can detect this frustration and use computer tracking software to put this data to use. Tracking software can also detect multiple “blobs” of frustration.
This diagram below is by Jeff Han, a consultant from the New York University, Computer Science Department. It demonstrates how the infrared light is frustrated in an FTIR setup.
Jeff also made a presentation for TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), an annual conference held in Long Beach, California. He used an FTIR setup to demonstrate the possibilities of multi-touch design for future applications. His video can be found here.
In the coming posts, I will explore low cost solutions to building my own FTIR table. And most importantly, conceptualize the possiblities for use in 3D editing and production using Blender 3D.
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