A low cost multi-touch surface

• Main Author: Chng, Eric Boon Keat.
• Other Authors: Chua Hock Chuan
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering::Computer hardware, software and systems
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/39366
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Multi-touch is a human-computer interaction technique that was popularized by Apple’s iPhones. Its intuitiveness provides mass appeal, and its applications range from games to desktop management and even specialized areas such as medical visualization. However, commercial multi-touch solutions, such as the Microsoft Surface, are often too expensive for individuals and small organizations. Therefore, the objective of this project is to develop a complete low-cost multi-touch solution. Costs were kept low with the use of cheaper but cost-effective materials, and open-source multi-touch tracking software. Another primary objective of the project is to integrate multi-touch functionality into two highly popular open-source 3D software, Blender and the Visualization ToolKit (VTK). In this project, a low cost multi-touch surface was set up using the Frustrated Total Internal Reflection (FTIR) technique, enabling robust multi-touch sensing with minimum engineering effort and expense. An experiment to improve the sensitivity of the touch surface was then conducted by coating silicone onto a plastic sheet to create a compliant surface. The results have shown that this compliant surface did not perform well, but further research has also shown the potential of compliant surfaces, given suitable types of silicone and projection surfaces. With regards to software, multi-touch capabilities were implemented into Blender and VTK, thus greatly simplifying the creation of multi-touch 3D applications. Two such applications were then created to showcase the use of multi-touch in enhancing human-computer interaction in applications and games. An evaluation of the application development process suggested that Blender would be suited for creating multi-touch games, while VTK would be suited for creating multi-touch medical visualization software.