Touchscreen everywhere: on transferring a normal planar surface to a touch-sensitive display

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Computer Vision
• Optical Sensing

Background:

• Traditional interactive displays require specialized hardware.
• Integrating large displays and touch input in small devices is challenging.
• Projector-camera systems offer potential for novel interfaces.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a low-cost, versatile human-computer interface using a projector and camera.
• To enable a standard table surface to function as both a projection screen and a touch input device.
• To investigate the feasibility of structured light sensing for touch detection.

Main Methods:

• A structured light sensing scheme with a random binary pattern was embedded into the projected display.
• A camera captured the projected image on a table surface.
• System calibration, hand segmentation, and homography mapping were used to detect touch events and positions.

Main Results:

• The system successfully transformed a regular table surface into a touch-sensitive display.
• Accurate detection of finger presence, touch location, and trajectory tracking was achieved.
• The system demonstrated multi-touch capability and efficient performance.

Conclusions:

• The proposed projector-camera system offers a feasible and cost-effective solution for creating interactive surfaces.
• This approach enables large-display, touch-input capabilities using readily available components.
• The technology has potential applications in various interactive environments.