multi-touch table
Product overview
Multi-Touch Technology is one of the most
interesting developments in today's Human-Computer-Interface area. With
the Multi-Touch Table, IGD releases one of the first
ready-for-production tables. Its monolithic design and its dimensions
in combination with its underlying advanced technology are unique
worldwide.
The interaction is simple and intuitive. Simple enough to
even navigate and manipulate complex three-dimensional scenes with
gestures. A wiping gesture rotates an object around its axis. A
dragging gesture with both forefingers zooms into the object. Longsome
familiarization is a thing of the past. Thus trade fairs and museum
exhibitions are obvious application areas.
The Multi-Touch Table was
successfully launched at the K Messe in Düsseldorf, Germany. The
Coperion Group uses this new interactive piece of furniture as
presentation tool to demonstrate their complex plants in a simple way.
The Demonstration at BMBF's booth at CeBIT 2008 showed an architectural
application. It
featured several scalable plans of Messe Frankfurt’s new Hall 11.
Multiple users could move and zoom these plans like you know it from
other multi-touch applications.
But the key feature was the tile with a high quality 3d view of the
building. Users were grabbing a plan with the left hand. One finger of right hand
moved the camera through the 3D model. The second finger defined the
orientation of the camera. This enabled incredible cinematic camera
movements in 3D. When the second finger pointed on a certain object on
the plan and the first finger moved around it the 3d camera
moved around that object while keeping it on focus.
Technology
The
interaction relies on an optical capturing method which localises the
finger position on the table’s surface. Novel methods to multi-finger
tracking have been developed and led to highly stable results.
The
table’s surface has been optimised in order to offer comfortable and
friction-free sliding as well as to provide performing projection
properties and finger recognition.
The projection unit is embedded
inside the Table and delivers – in spite of the limited space within
the table and thanks to a specific optic and a mirror system, a clear
and high resolution image on the table's surface.
Concerning the
software, we use the advanced 3D graphics engine instantplayer. The
system visualises high-quality 2D and 3D scenes using the latest
graphics features, and manages the scene animation and multi-touch user
interactions at the same time. The system relies on the graphics
standard X3D, which has been extended to these new interaction
paradigms. Hence,the application designer needs only to take care of
the 3D-content itself; additional time consuming and complex
calibration procedures for finger tracking have been automated and are
available within the provided software package.
A first set of
simple Table-Interactions such as Selection, Zoom-in, Zoom-out,
Translation, Rotation can be taken over and extended to the special
need of the new application.
Technical Data
Size:
164 cm x 140 cm x 90 cm (B, T, H)
Display:
150 cm x 90 cm
1400 x 1050 Pixel
4000 ANSI lumen
Operating system:
Ubuntu Linux 7.10, Windows XP and Vista, Mac OS
Software:
instantplayer (X3D), VisionLib, Mouse Simulation