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Creating a Touch-Screen on a Countertop

By translating shapes into computerized images, this system can turn any surface into a touch-screen.

By Gregory Mone
Mar 18, 2013 4:34 PMNov 14, 2019 9:18 PM
computing-1.jpg
Graduate students use hand gestures and motions on a simple tabletop to input various commands into the computer at Purdue’s C-Design lab. Infrared depth sensors (in the white bar on the table's far side) measure the position of hands and fingers in 3-D space. An image-processing algorithm tracks and interprets hand gestures and motions over time. | C-Design Lab/Purdue University

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The next step in touch-screens may be to ditch the actual screen, according to researchers at Purdue University. Engineers Karthik Ramani and Niklas Elmqvist and their colleagues recently unveiled a projector-based computer input system that can transform desks, office walls, or even kitchen islands into interactive surfaces. 

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