Multi-touch human-computer interface A

• Main Author: Ke, Jolyn Wan Lin.
• Other Authors: Chua Hock Chuan
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/52690
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Multi-touch technology as a form of Human Computer Interface (HCI) has been gaining popularity since the Apple iPhone was released in 2007. Besides the wide usage of such technology in smaller mobile devices, other applications of the technology in a larger scale can actually be of more commercial value, for example, when used as display solutions in museums or even as interactive learning tools in schools. However, multi-touch screens at such larger scale can be very expensive to manufacture. To address this issue, previous FYP projects had been trying to build multi-touch screen prototypes using the cost-effective approach. The objective of this project is improve on the past designs in aim to build a low cost multi-touch screen but at a larger scale, which is at the same time lightweight and also easily portable. When analyzing the advantages and weaknesses of the past prototypes, it is observed that these prototypes were either too bulky or heavy for easy relocation of the setup. Moreover, the screen is currently limited to the size of one normal projector projection, which might not be large enough for usage on a bigger scale. A new prototype has been designed and built to meet the above objectives. While continuing to use the cost-effective LLP (Laser Light Plane) technique to build the multi-touch screen as the previous FYP groups did, the need for bulky and heavy wooden frames and acrylic screens is omitted by the replacement of thin plastic boards painted with Nippon Paint's SolaReflect paint. This alternative solution not only helped to decrease the overall thickness of the touch screen from the second prototype by 87.5% (from 4 cm to 0.5cm) which helped to increase the portability of the setup greatly, but it also managed to maintain the overall reasonable performance of the LLP configuration. The current prototype also measures up to 99 inches diagonally, a touch screen size that might easily cost over a few hundred thousand dollars in the current market.