If you’re looking to use a projected touch screen on any surface while looking like the "Predator" alien from the movies, then Microsoft’s got you, or rather any surface, covered with their Wearable Multitouch Projector. The projector, designed by Chris Harrison, Hrvoje Benko and Andy Wilson is outfitted with a PrimeSense RGB/depth camera (it’s actually an Asus XTION Pro) that can image objects with a 320X240 resolution as close as 20cm at 30fps. Along with the depth camera is an SHOWWX Laser Pico Projector that can project a focus free image (with a range of 6in to 100in) at a resolution of 848X480 at a 16:9 aspect ratio.
Mounted camera and projector. (via Mircosoft)
The R&D guy’s at Microsoft had to calibrate the camera for finger detection by using an algorithm that ‘looks for vertical slices of cylinder-like objects’ which allows the fingers to be separate objects rather than one big one. This enables the user to use any or multiple digits to interact with the screen. For the actual ‘click detection’ the team used a depth map that can detect the distance of an object on a very small scale (a centimeter or less). This enables the system to judge distance and whether the object (or finger) has made contact with the image projected. The combined platform of both camera and projector is placed on the users shoulder because the location provides an unobstructed field-of-view for both projection and interaction.
Sure, the Wearable Multitouch Projector is rather large and sure you will look kind of funny wearing it, but it sure is cool being able to make a touchscreen out of everything even curved surfaces. According to the team, future versions could be as small as a matchbox, and it could be worn as a pendant with the continuing miniaturization of technology.
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