Microsoft Surface has sure captured the attention of many with its slick, multi-touch experience. However, it’s by no means the only touch “surface” making the rounds.
This evening I saw a clever “touch,” virtual dining surface mentioned on the news. It’s part of an exhibit on display at the Detroit Institute of Arts that projects a meal on a table with which you can interact with. This Free Press article gives a good idea what the table is like.
It appears that the dining room table has a forward facing projector that displays a collection of dinner items which people can move about. I assume there’s a camera sitting beside the projector which is used to track people’s movements and determine how to translate the virtual dinner items. Pretty clever.
Actually, there’s a somewhat similar interactive art installation at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas. On the way to and from the monorail from the Paris Hotel is a projected pool of water displayed on the walkway which you can interact with as you walk over it. With each footstep virtual ripples spread throughout the image.
There are some other art-oriented surfaces that you might find in your local museum too. One is called the DialogTable, which museum goers can use to interact with explanations of what’s on display at the museum.
The DialogTable website explains how the device works:
“A computer interface is projected onto the bottom surface at each end of the table. A camera on the ceiling analyzes your hand gestures. Like a mouse click, a grasping hand motion allows you to drag images. A digital shadow of your hand is projected onto the screen allowing you to gesture above the table. Unlike a touchscreen up to eight hands can be manipulating the same interface at the same time.”
This is somewhat similar to a Microsoft Surface computer although in the case of a Surface device the camera(s) are placed behind the screen. This avoids some occlusion problems–although if there are physical objects on the display (such as cell phones, papers, or what have you), there will be “touch deadspots” on the display nonetheless. With cameras “above” the display the cameras are at least able to see how the users might be interacting with the objects. I’m not sure if this is a big deal in most cases though.