NYU's Multi-Touch Sensing through Frustrated Total Internal Reflection Display

When we first saw "interactive touch-screen display" in the tips jar, it made us think of playing MegaTouch 9000 at a seedy bar and we were about to toss it in the ol' recycling bin. Then we decided to give the linked vid a look, and discovered that NYU's Multi-Touch Sensing through Frustrated Total Internal Reflection Display (1. We swear that's what it's really called, and 2. Can any marketing majors out there please give these guys a hand?) is way cooler than Trivia Whiz or Photo Hunt. Using a rear-projector that throws an image onto a screen similar in composition to  fingerprint scanners, Jeff Han and his team at the Media Research Laboratory have built a scalable system that allows multiple points of input by one or more users (think: digital conference table). Some of the stuff they do in the video is wild, such as two-handed scratching of digital turntables, and future iterations of the project will attempt finger-specific recognition for an even higher degree of flexibility.

[Thanks, Ryan]

[Andrew @ Feb 9th 2006 6:26AM]

We need this stuff. Multitouch on screen keyboards for PDAs and mobile phones. No more "press Shift-wait-press letter" nonsense.

[Andy @ Feb 9th 2006 7:06AM]

That's cool, i want that toy :)

Let's hope that Apple won't get this patent:
http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/apples-patented-the-tablet-mac-part-ii/

[Bultie @ Feb 9th 2006 7:16AM]

It looks like Apple IS planig something like this in it's supposed tablet Mac.

See the link http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/apples-patented-the-tablet-mac-part-ii/

Lets hope that Apple gets this Patent instead of junky Micro$oft.
And when they get it, lets hope it will be reeased soon.

[ian mcgrady @ Feb 9th 2006 7:42AM]

This looks like the foundation of the "gesture based" tablet that Mac said they would develop -- I mean, what else are they going to be doing those similar two finger dances for?

[Chris @ Feb 9th 2006 7:56AM]

Has anybody at Engadget (or WeblogsInc) noticed that links in comments are currently broken?

e.g. In post #3, the words 'Lets' has ended up inside the link tag.

That particular one works as intended, but others don't :

e.g. The link in the comment at this next article is to an .asp script, which chokes on the extra junk that finds its way into the URL.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/06/ugobes-pleo-dino-bot/

[bigMIKE @ Feb 9th 2006 10:58AM]

That was the most amazing thing I have seen sinceI saw Minorty Report.

I didn't see what kind of computer they were using to run the program or process the information. That would be interesting to know considering how smooth the video and how reactive the display was.

[Geoffrey Hoffman @ Feb 9th 2006 11:05AM]

The link points to the old page. The new page is:

http://mrl.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch/index.html

They probably should have linked to that, instead of deep linking to the video, since it's available in a couple of formats.

[Geoffrey Hoffman @ Feb 9th 2006 11:09AM]

And yeah, the URL parser is busted on my post as well. Guess URL's have to be at the bottom:

http://mrl.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch/index.html

[nschubach @ Feb 9th 2006 11:18AM]

F-TIRD? (or even worse if you leave the first word un-abbreviated)

[Neil Mc @ Feb 9th 2006 12:09PM]

Is the link to the nyu.edu site broken?

[Frankg @ Feb 9th 2006 12:14PM]

what's the advantage over Lemur's Jazzmutant, another multisensing product which is on the market for over 6 months now?

[DCFC Fan @ Feb 9th 2006 1:08PM]

This is easily the slickest thing I've seen in months! Freakin' brilliant.

[h @ Feb 9th 2006 1:45PM]

Similiar to the Fingerworks gesture based touchpads which did have specific finger recognition. Too bad they're out of business.

[Justin @ Feb 9th 2006 2:00PM]

forget keyboards, forget mice, forget gyroscopic air interface controllers, this is how we will use computers in the future. another great example of how hollywood shows a "future" technology and the tech/science industry comes out and makes it real, ?a minority report and red planet

[David @ Feb 9th 2006 2:56PM]

Same people, cooler video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp-y3ZNaCqs

[ryan @ Feb 9th 2006 3:28PM]

i wasnt sure they would show this when i submitted! im so happy people are interested!

[ryan @ Feb 9th 2006 3:30PM]

oh, and this is a private researcher. its not apple or MS based, so fear not people!

[mike romero @ Feb 9th 2006 3:45PM]

that was AWESOME. I believe a technology like that will revolutionize the way people interact with their computers. i could totally see that being useful in day to day activities especially for multimedia focused users. i dont know how responsive that virtual keyboard was, but if it was responsive enough to make me not miss a keyboard - it'd be awesome to have both hands on the screen

[mike romero @ Feb 9th 2006 3:46PM]

that was AWESOME. I believe a technology like that will revolutionize the way people interact with their computers. i could totally see that being useful in day to day activities especially for multimedia focused users. i dont know how responsive that virtual keyboard was, but if it was responsive enough to make me not miss a keyboard - it'd be awesome to have both hands on the screen

[Fantaz @ Feb 9th 2006 7:46PM]

This is amazing technology! There's an endless ammount of possibilities with this. Reminds me a bit of Minority Report.

[Apples @ Feb 10th 2006 4:09AM]

seems like a touch screen

[WhiteNoiz @ Feb 10th 2006 1:46PM]

Holy crap, that is awesome. Seems much more capable than the Lemur and also looks like they have a bunch of software that works with it already. I would buy that in a second.

[skonofvulcan @ Feb 20th 2006 12:04PM]

Very cool tech. Imagine the entire top of your desk being on huge display/tablet like this, except for a small area on each side for your phone, desk accesorys etc. of course. You could have stacks of images sorted in 'piles' next to Photoshop over here and over there Word documents and spreadsheets with virtual in box's and out box's. And then theres your keyboard in the display that can be slid off to the side and almost totaly off the screen or just shrunk. ANd if you don't like the keyboard to be gone keep it on top but semi transparent. And if you like 'break' the keyboard in half and slide to two pieces to the right and left with the document in the middle. Lot's of fun and usefull ideas come to mind. This could realy be a huge step forward in the area of computer/human interaction.

[h3 @ Mar 22nd 2006 6:13PM]

Greatest invention since the computers. And IMO it was about time. Keyboards and mices are more adapted for computer than humans and should be in museum, not on my desk.

i just can't wait for the day it'll be available on the market, i buy one for sure.

The only thing that bugs me, is that it use a back projected glass for display, hence the perfect dark environement. The technology is pretty simple and seems to work great, I just wonder if the glass where happens the reflection could be over an other display type, like crt or lcd, which would enable using this technology lights open.

[pinch @ Jun 8th 2006 9:25AM]

Where can I find someone who could help me to developped a 3D project with this MTS ???

[andrew @ Nov 11th 2006 4:17PM]

what is the size of the cpu/RAM which that thing uses? it probably uses power in the mega watt range.. nonetheless... awsome stuff

wow, this guy is serious: Wayne Carl
he already holds several patents... dating all the way back to 1999... INTERNATIONAL PATENTS

no wonder he's flaunting his stuff

pardon for using only Wayne's name... there's another guy partially responsible for the design: Elias

[Ricardo @ Mar 1st 2007 12:06PM]

I wet my pants at least 18 times already watching the NYU video...

[Matteo Tononi @ Dec 7th 2007 10:20PM]

Good Mornig.Where is possible a buy this complete system?I'm a young italian designer and i'm interesting it.
Sorry for a my English
BY BY