Scalable Multi-Touch
Devices such as the iPhone have begun to scratch the surface of gesture-based software interfaces, yet large, true multi-touch interfaces are still rare, bulky, and expensive.
This recent prototype – a next iteration of labs’ Sensing Screen – promises effortless touch interaction, full multi-touch, a robust glass work surface, low stack height, with comparatively moderate cost. It does not utilize cameras or projection technology. This means that in production, this scalable technology could be very thin and very big. It could sit on legs like any table, or lay on a wall surface like any LCD panel.
Watch the demo:
Scalable Multi-Touch Prototype from MOTO Development Group.
Points in Evolution
This design meets a set of feature requirements for large multi-touch devices that no other system currently delivers.
- Scalability: this prototype is 19 inches diagonal, but the technology can scale up to 50 inches and beyond.
- True multi-touch: it is able to take direction from more than 2 fingers – it’s limited only by how many fingers you can fit on the screen.
- High resolution: it can detect very small movements of the finger with good accuracy and precision.
- Affordability: compared to other platforms, this solution promises moderate cost.
- Definitive position sensing: no ghosting, no aliasing when crossing fingers over an axis.
- Low profile: no cameras or projectors mean that this can be large and yet thin as an LCD panel.
Truly Social Multi-Touch
No cameras or projectors means that this solution promises authentic social interaction where the device does not obstruct user experience. Coffee table gaming or collaborative media making could be very natural, comfortable, and compelling.
State of the Art
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| Camera-and projector-based large touch panels such as Microsoft’s Surface table or Jeff Han/ Perceptive Pixel’s screens provide great interaction but require bulky housing for the camera projection technology. They also perform better in low-light environments, and are expensive. | Visual Planet’s ViP Interactive Foil can be applied as an overlay to LCD screens or even window surfaces (with rear camera projection/screen). Very scalable, but a single-touch solution. | Resistive screens are comparatively inexpensive, but they require force to activate (it can’t sense a hovering touch), and hence fail to provide effortless, gliding touch interaction. They are also less durable over time. | The iPhone uses a grid of ITO traces (long, thin, clear strips of conductive material) to transmit and receive the signals. However, ITO has too high a resistivity to be practical at screen sizes much greater than 8″. |
The Basics
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Our implementation is a lot like the iPhone’s – it’s a scanned capacitive approach where the presence of a finger on a sensor grid creates a detectable change in signal, thereby indicating position.
However, instead of using the iPhone’s ITO (indium tin oxide), MOTO’s implementation uses an array of extremely fine wires to conduct the signals, thereby sidestepping the challenges of ITO’s high resistivity. How does it work? Sixty times a second, each row drives a signal which is received by all the columns. A finger will reduce the level of the signal reaching the columns along the finger touch line. Our technology registers this reduction in signal and interprets it as a touch. The wires in this demo are clearly visible in part due to the moire effect, and in part because we have lit them for show. When fabricating a production screen, slight wiggles in much thinner gauge wires would make them considerably less conspicuous. |
Related Stimuli on Future of Touch-Based Interaction
- Oblong Industries: g-speak spatial operating environment
- Patti Meas and Pranav Mistry on Unveiling the “Sixth Sense”
- Siftables: cookie-sized computers with motion-sensing, neighbor detection, and wireless communication
- NUI Group: open source human computer interaction community
- Media Interaction Lab’s NiCE (Natural User Interfaces for Collaborative Environments) research project
April 28th, 2009 at 5:14 am
WOW!
I am working on a multitouch solution for my LCD screen, with IR light and a LCD screen. But this is so much nicer!
Keep up the good work and make sure this is available in stores soon
April 28th, 2009 at 7:58 am
Do you have an OEM go-to-market strategy? I have prototype applications that have been waiting for such a technology to surface.
April 28th, 2009 at 9:39 am
I have a multi fader video application that could benefit a lot from your screen. Is there a way I could experiment with one of your screens?
April 28th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Any idea of the price it would cost ?
May 2nd, 2009 at 7:30 am
Now, all you need is an API.
May 4th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Is this something that will eventually be open sourced? What is the software written in and what OS/Platforms have you tested it with?
June 16th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
So when can we buy one? I want one now! 24″ x 36″ would be perfect.