Touchscreens are everywhere these days. They’re on laptops, smartphones, even embedded in our refrigerators. What happens if you find yourself stranded, let’s say, in the arctic and you have no touchscreen? Not to worry, Nokia’s researchers have you covered! Jyri Huopaniemi and a team of researchers from the Nokia Research Center in Finland have built a touchscreen using 1 ton of ice cut into 19.68 inch square blocks assembled into a 7 ft X 5 ft wall. They then used a near-infrared light source positioned behind the ice screen to flood the back with invisible light, which was used in conjunction with near-infrared cameras aimed towered the front as well. When a user places his hand on the opposite side of the screen the camera’s capture the light reflected back and the information is then sent to a computer that determines the location, size and motion of the user’s appendage on the screen. The computer then uses a projector to display images on the ice, such as warming fire, to follow the users hand movements. Seeing how this seems relatively simple to do, what other things could we incorporate a touchscreen into?
Eavesdropper