If the
toe mouse just wasn't grand enough for you, how about
an entire floor to practice your foot-based inputs on? Researchers at Potsdam's (that's in Germany, yo) Hasso Plattner Institut have put together a multitouch floor that recognizes individual users by their shoe pattern and responds to such universally familiar actions as stomping your feet and tapping your toes. The so-called multitoe project works on the basis of
frustrated total internal reflection, which allows it to ignore inactive users while being precise enough to recognize foot
postures. Follow us after the break to see this back-projected proof of concept in action.
[Photo by Kay Herschelmann]
