Touch Screen Creation!

We've had a short break since the summer finished and everyone went back to school/ college. Thank goodness for half term though!. This mid-term holiday gave us the chance to get on and finally make the multi-touch screen!

To be honest we did need a short break while the equipment was ordered. Some of it came from the States so there was a fair way for it to travel. The basic kit list included:

1 strip of infra red LED ribbon (with power pack and UK compliant cabling)
1 70 x 55cm sheet of laser cut perspex (8mm thick)
1 sheet of tracing paper covered in 3 thin layers of silicone
1 Playstation 3 camera with infra red blocking filter removed
1 short throw projector
1 mac mini
1 box to house it all

As mentioned before we were using the FTIR touch screen technique which involves shining infra red LEDs through a perspex sheet. When someone touches the perspex, this interrupts the LED light flow, which is picked up by the camera and relayed to the Mac mini which then processes everything and turns the table into a multi-touch surface. We used an open source software programme called Community Core Vision, which we downloaded from the online NUI Group Community here. All research and information for this project was picked up online. Amazing what you learn on the internet isn't it? :)

As they say, a picture does tell a thousand words so have a look above and check back with us next week for a video documenting the making of the table.

25th Aug 09- Robot.

The 25Th was the day we as a group put together a robot. It was slightly more complicated then just sitting down and following instructions though. The group was divided into two groups, in two locations. The first group had the instructions on how the robot is built and the second group had the robot's pieces. We communicated through Skype.

The task was for the first group to direct and guide the second group into completing the robot without having any visual or text instructions to follow by, instead we had to listen to each other and work together to get it done.

This task was awesome.

^_^

I didn't personally know anyone in the group, yet alone their names but by the end of this group task i felt i got to know everyone and their role in the group fairly well. Some were better at following instructions for example rather then giving them. I got to know those who choose to work quieter, those who like to talk things through, those that prefer to work independently and those like me that like to do a bit of everything. It was an interesting session and i loved it even though we ran out of time and couldn't finish it that day.

x

Where to Buy a Touch panel

http://www.virtualvillage.co.uk/8.9-touch-screen-panel-kit-for-asus-eee-pc-904/sku007900-044?utm_source=googlebase&utm_medium=shcomp&utm_campaign=8.9%20Touch%20Screen%20Panel%20kit%20For%20Asus%20EEE%20PC%20904

Asus Eee pc Touchscreen

http://jkkmobile.blogspot.com/2007/12/how-to-add-touch-panel-to-asus-eee-pc.html

Building a Multi-Touch Sensitive Table

http://dundee.cs.queensu.ca/wiki/index.php/Building_a_Multi-Touch_Sensitive_Table

Multitouch materials and references

Looks like we'll be making a touch screen using the FTIR (Frustrated Total Internal Reflection) technique.

Materials required:
A wooden box (not completely necessary for FTIR but will look good)
Acrylic pane
Diffuser (decent tracing paper) painted with silicon sealant (to go over acrylic pane)
A projector
A PS3 camera (with IR blocking filter removed)
IR LED ribbon (not widely available in UK but easier than soldering 100 LEDs together)
Heat absorbing glass (to go between projector and acrylic)
2 fans (to keep everything cool)
A computer

Resources and sites to buy from:
http://www.peauproductions.com/
http://www.environmentallights.com/products/12610/InfraRed_Ribbon_Deluxe_Kit_European


Useful Vids and tutorials:
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/maximum_pc_builds_a_multitouch_surface_computer?page=0%2C0

The below vids show you how to remove the IR filter from a PS3 camera (essential for touch screen). This is the preferred camera to use as it has a frame rate of 100 frames per second when used with the touch screen software. Frame rate is more important than image quality as the camera is used to detect movement.

What we've been up to

Over the past couple of months I've spent a lot of time online learning about Wiimote whiteboards, touch screens, Lego robots and all kinds of other amazing tech projects. I reckon I've probably picked up more knowledge from doing this research than I was taught at Uni and it's all down to people getting online and sharing their ideas, knowledge and experience. So, let's continue to share and see what happens when you get an interesting group of young people together to bridge the gap between creativity and technology.

We've spent quite a bit of time testing what you can do with Wiimotes. Thanks to Johnny Chung Lee we've managed to quite easily play around with Wiimote whiteboards and VR displays. I'd also recommend looking into Friispray to make your own digital graffiti wall.


Another relatively easy experiment was learning to create a touch screen. The group all tried creating their own touch screen using the instructions in the video below and it worked a treat. They've since decided that a great longer term project would be to make a durable, more professional looking screen so fingers crossed.