Researchers create tangible table interface
By Donald Melanson 
posted March 29th 2007 11:19AM
posted March 29th 2007 11:19AM
Apparently inspired by some late night bouts of air hockey, a team of researchers at the University of Design in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany have crafted a so-called "tangible table" interface that uses a series of pucks to handle all the controls. The system works by using a camera underneath the table to track the movements of the pucks (which are distinguished by marks on their undersides), along with a combination mirrors, infrared lights, and a projector to display the image on the surface of the table. While it so far only appears to be cable of simple tasks like moving, zooming, and rotating, we suspect it's only a matter of time before they realize the true potential of the device and whip up a game of Breakout.[Via Pasta and Vinegar]
www.feelingthemusic.com
same idea, but nicer music output and clearer interface techniques in my opinion...
Reminds we of the table the doctor uses in The Island.
Been done before.
http://mtg.upf.edu/reactable/
TheZodiac:
I was going to say the same. And the reactable is much more detailed and advanced than the table posted here or Endgadget. In fact, reactable has been around for awhile.
Everyone should check out http://mtg.upf.edu/reactable/ (as posted by TheZodiac) to check out some awesome manipulation.
This is rather old technology... see link above
There's a lot of interactive tables out there, per the posts above. Many universities with creative engineering depts have come up with like concepts.
That said...they are extremely helpful to the PhD candidates who design them. Lets them easily chart out their respective choices in life. Lets them see where things went horribly, horribly, wrong.
And zoom in on those moments to re-live them.
There's a company called Headward? that's displaying interfaces to the user who has an installed headchip. Objects (sliders, switches, buttons) appear to be real and feel tactile but those around the user without a linked headchip can't see the interface or the objects. Direct to sensory integration is closer than you think.
Why cameras and markers when you could use RFID and scanners? You could have a 3D interface, that way...
It's stolen Asgaard technology.
Yeah, but I'd like to see something for my PC
"While it so far only appears to be cable of simple tasks like moving..." I don't get what "cable" has to do with any of this. Does it use cables somehow, or do you use to to change channels on your digital cable tuner?
I think they misspelled 'capable' somehow.
Similar to TheZodiac's URL:
http://www.jamespatten.com/audiopad/
it's a pretty implementation but this technology is ten years old: http://tangible.media.mit.edu/projects/luminousroom/ and the user interface potential has been explored far past this stage: http://tangible.media.mit.edu/projects/audiopad/
http://jamespatten.com/pico/ current versions track pucks using something similar to RFID rather than computer vision.
i'm pretty sure someone at MIT did this with RFID in the pucks and it was used to control a synthesizer, although that one i'm pretty sure used a projector tethered to a linux box to project the interface onto the table. but the table had all the stuff to track the pucks in it, so maybe it's a completely different animal.
http://www.jamespatten.com/audiopad/
that's the link to it.
This has also been applied to music creation in a damn cool way:
http://www.jamespatten.com/audiopad/
Very intersting! pretty! grettings from mas Tecno
How is this any better than Jeff Han's Multi-Touch screen design?
watch the small video here
http://www.urbanlearningspace.com/projects/improve
loads of Germans playing with interactive VR thingy's including tables