DIY'er creates 56-inch multi-touch display

It seems like the multi-touch revolution that's happening right now is really bringing out the DIY'ers -- and this latest feat of hackery is right up there with the best of them. Christopher Jette has created a massive, 56-inch multi-touch display in his spare time using a box that resembles an old rear-projection TV, 168 infrared LEDs, and some serious elbow grease. The LEDs dot the perimeter of the screen and create a field of IR light which is scattered when touched, a webcam mounted at the back of the display picks up the movement and translates it to input. If you've got some time on your hands, there are instructions available for recreating the experiment, or you can just sit back and watch it in action in the video after the break.

[Via Hack a Day]

[skulldriveshaft @ May 20th 2008 9:41PM]

I think christopher has a peg leg and likes to use his middle finger too much.

Nice work.

[Christopher Jette @ May 22nd 2008 6:01PM]

I had a little cut on that finger! lol :) And I'd like to thank everyone for great comments! Check my instructables.com for more details.
Chris

[KEROLiUKAS @ May 20th 2008 9:42PM]

Sweet....Good use of an old TV.

[KEROLiUKAS @ May 20th 2008 9:42PM]

Sweet....Good use of an old TV.

[Khaeos @ May 20th 2008 9:43PM]

im watching this video at 2.45 am in the library..so i have no sound...but that video he manipulates has got to be linkin park...tell me its linkin park...chester???

[Jenny @ May 20th 2008 9:50PM]

Far from it. You're lucky not to have sound.

[Khaeos @ May 20th 2008 9:53PM]

lol..why what does it sound like...

but i swear the way the guy holds the mic is just like chester bennington....dam..

[mkeough23 @ May 20th 2008 9:48PM]

I Want the one they use in the CNN Election Center.

[austin @ May 20th 2008 9:55PM]

take $100,000 to neiman marcus, and its yours

[Reader @ May 20th 2008 10:05PM]

"using a old rear-projection TV"

I'll leave it at that.

[Jeff @ May 20th 2008 10:11PM]

It actually isn't an old rear-projection TV it is a box that he made and has a projector set-up in there with two mirrors to get the screen size of 56 inches

[Ryan Trevisol @ May 20th 2008 10:15PM]

Does anyone else think this Multi-Touch is the quickly becoming the most over-used tech buzzword of 2008?

This tech is very cool, and his implementation of it is hot, but what's the real usefulness of this as an interface? Can you do anything productive with a large multitouch surface??

[Kinger @ May 20th 2008 11:47PM]

There is a reason why we are calling them "smart surfaces"

Productive? It depends on what you are doing with it.

What it is, is a step closer to the natural "tactile" world we live in.

R.I.P. mouse.

[dreamscape86 @ May 21st 2008 2:03AM]

I was thinking the same thing while watching this... It may be a multitouch screen, but nothing he does on there couldn't be done with a non-multitouch screen. Not to say that the technology doesn't have potential, but it seems like everyone thinks it's the greatest thing ever, and it really doesn't *do* anything at this point.

[nebulus @ May 21st 2008 3:38AM]

While I agree Multitouch is getting very popular and perhaps a little overused/hyped, once you use an interface like this with the correct kind of application it is absolutely brilliant.

Map and photo set browsing is very intuitive, and any operation that requires you do several things at once really benefits from this type of interface, eg controlling audio equipment using Jazzmutant's Lemur.

Also watching this video in the context of engadget, I have to agree nothing too special to see here, other than big screen and nice build quality, but in the context of where the video was actually made for posting on the nuigroup.com user forum showcase its spot on...

[0megapart!cle @ May 20th 2008 10:16PM]

This is basically how the touchscreen works in the Honda Accord (at least the '03/04 model), although the Accord doesn't have multitouch. But it uses infrared sensors similarly.

Very cool demo.

[bantam @ May 20th 2008 10:32PM]

yeah this is a lot cooler:
http://www.tekpanel.com/

[phanbouy @ May 20th 2008 11:07PM]

10-foot screen polishing cloth not included

[jbs @ May 20th 2008 11:25PM]

isn't this just a DIY version of a Smartboard??

[Jamie Kephalas @ Jun 17th 2008 4:40AM]

Yup.

Pros = multi touch.

Cons = no pen feature.

but still, I'd "tap" that.

[darkstar @ May 21st 2008 12:23AM]

what kind of webcam did he use??
the creative webcam im using is lousy at 320x240.
i am hoping for something like 1920x1080!

[Bob @ May 21st 2008 12:58AM]

Wish I could turn my crap TV into that.

[Ben @ May 21st 2008 1:47AM]

Maybe someone can clarify this for me, but I've tried to read everything I can on how IR touchscreens work and I can't figure it out. How does the camera mounted in the back see changes in the "field of IR light" in the front when there's a monitor in between? I'm pretty certain they don't make transparent monitors, unless you're projecting onto glass.

[dreamscape86 @ May 21st 2008 2:05AM]

My understanding is that LCD panels may be opaque to our eyes, but they are in fact transparent to infrared. Check out the multitouch table built by a 16 year old kid that Engadget featured last week.

[BeniRose @ May 21st 2008 2:21AM]

So the infrared field is seen clearly through the metal and plastic on the back of the LCD panel? Wild!

[crimsonred @ May 21st 2008 2:38AM]

This is not an LCD screen. It's a projector based system that uses a technique known as FTIR. Infrared LEDs shine into a piece of acrylic. The light bounces around inside the acrylic and when you press on the panel, the infrared light stops bouncing where your fingers pressed. The webcam sees only infrared light and can see where the light stops (which is then tracked in software).

[nebulus @ May 21st 2008 3:26AM]

Go here to check out a lot of good multitouch info, including the various types of setups DI v FTIR and a very healthy forum of people doing their own builds swapping info and demo apps...

http://www.nuigroup.com/

[Cassini @ May 21st 2008 5:38AM]

It's cool that he built this. But the control/response is not very accurate. It's not too bad, but when he expands things, they expand much further and quicker than he seemingly is intending - the boxes become huge far beyond where his fingers are. It seems to get ahead or lag behind where his fingers are.

[Sooraj @ May 21st 2008 6:33AM]

Did we just forget Minority Report? This innovation is leading us to Pre-Crime... Interesting... :P

[Brent @ May 21st 2008 7:04AM]

These are cool, but you can build all kinds of different multi-touch stuff. They are all worthless unless you have some software to run on them, and right now I having found much in that department.