The more stories that are submitted here, the more often this kind of thing starts happening, unfortunately.
This is brilliant. I'm working with a client who wants to get involved with Microsoft Surface. I think I've just found a much better solution, and one that's more versatile!
There are many alternatives to do this with webcams and related stuff... however as I was saying above, this is probably the best option, and the more versatile tech I've seen for this effect.
absolutely amazing. hopefully this will get commercialized very soon.
I'm not much of a hardware hacker but this looks like a pretty small DIY project. A tighter, nicer package might be nice but I think the point is that the ``commercialized" version (cf. Microsoft Surface) is really expensive.
Even commercialized, this could be a cheaper and more versatile version of electronic whiteboards. Just bundle a portable LCD projector and an infrared sensor together and include software so it just works. Get a good team together and apply to Y Combinator.
I agree. I've done some research on how to develop all kind of Microsoft Surface related stuff, and no doubt there are a lot of alternatives to create a similar effect in a much cheaper way. However, I haven't seen anything this versatile... this idea and implementation is absolutely fantastic.
This kind of stuff isn't new. These guys use optical feedback to achieve similar effects:
Wonder who owns the patents to this kinda technology
I think most patents on this technology have expired with the possible exception of multi-touch.
this technically isn't "touch" though, so you should be OK. :)
True, but it all depends on the way the individual claims are written in the patents governing multi-touch systems. If they have separated the claims for determining touch points and for the using different touch points to control zoom for example it might still be a problem, need to read the patent claims carefully to be sure.
Still amazes me you can get patents on such things.
If you touch a screen with 2 fingers, and draw them outwards or inwards, what other thing could they conceivably control other than zoom?
Amazing :)
How about deforming?
Porn.
Also, generally you can't patent ideas like "multitouch" but rather processes or methods of implementing an idea. Not sure if there's any patents on IR-based input like this, but a quick search didn't turn anything up.