Comments on: Best hack ever.

Best hack ever.

Pastabagel — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 13:47:41 -0800

We've all seen the multitouch interfaces of Jeff Han, Apple, Tactiva, and Microsoft. Now, fellow mefite you brings us the ultimate guerrilla hack - the $2 multitouch pad. [via mefi projects]

By: delmoi

delmoi — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 13:51:43 -0800

I don't think the glass table (or the camera) cost less then $2. Skill kind of cool, though. But part of what people want is to be able to touch displays.

By: CitrusFreak12

CitrusFreak12 — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 13:55:39 -0800

That is very cool. Very cool. But what the hell is a "guerilla hack"??

By: phaedon

phaedon — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 13:59:38 -0800

this blog previously posted the smackbook.

By: zoogleplex

zoogleplex — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:05:43 -0800

*boggles* Frickin'. Genius. Now I want to rig something like this up so I can use actual paintbrushes as input devices for my art apps. I don't mind if it's not right on the monitor, I've been drawing on a standard Wacom tablet for over a decade.

By: aladfar

aladfar — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:06:40 -0800

This is pretty neat. But it's not exactly revolutionary. I've seen similar work done with a webcam and a projector - by tracking the shadows on a screen, a user can bounce balls around, etc. Not quite the same as actually touching and interacting with a display itself. But this really is an ingenious implementation. I wish I was smart enough to put something like this together!

By: hincandenza

hincandenza — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:11:46 -0800

By these definitions, the Microsoft table is effectively free, since it's just two webcams, some polarized glass (apparently the camera cost can be dismissed, as can the glass table)... oh, and the software to process the interfaces. Oh wait- yeah, the software was the difficult part all along!!! Webcams have had motion/hand sensor software for some time, and what we're seeing here is a single-touch sensor, not a multitouch display. The guy's simply built a Wacom tablet out of a plastic bag, blue dye, and a webcam. It's not even unified with the display, which is what the other interfaces have in common. I mean, extending a multi-touch interface to understand and distinguish N concurrent points of interaction- along with updating the OS GUI to understand seamlessly the multiple interfaces and integrate that into its applications- well that my friend costs a lot more than $2 to do.

By: muddgirl

muddgirl — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:16:37 -0800

hincandenza - can you explain how a single-touch display did his "pan/rotate/zoom" thing at the end?

By: Muddler

Muddler — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:36:20 -0800

And can someone please tell me why we are putting the iPhone in with this category of equipment? It's glorified Treo touch screen for crying out loud.

By: Inkoate

Inkoate — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:46:07 -0800

And can someone please tell me why we are putting the iPhone in with this category of equipment? It's glorified Treo touch screen for crying out loud. Er, except for the iPhone does multitouch, just like all other other items listed above, whereas the Treo does not?

By: yeti

yeti — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:48:50 -0800

Is this the same you as in 2006 Time Magazine's Person of the Year?

By: zoogleplex

zoogleplex — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:54:26 -0800

"It's glorified Treo touch screen for crying out loud." Respectfully disagree. The iPhone seems to be quite a bit more complex and functional. The Treo is the same single-touch screen as any old PDA from the last 5 years, isn't it? "(apparently the camera cost can be dismissed, as can the glass table)" If you already own these items and have used them for other things, you can effectively dismiss their cost on this project (especially if you already wrote them off on last year's taxes). I already have a couple of webcams and a glass-top table which would work fine, for instance. You're right about the software, of course. This guy isn't counting his hours programming, which are generally quite expensive!

By: lekvar

lekvar — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:55:56 -0800

There's a lot of information left out of the blog entry. Which software is being used? I'd love to used this technique to control MIDI CC data.

By: Skorgu

Skorgu — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:58:45 -0800

Now that's very clever. Completely impractical, but clever. FTIR screens are, of course, rather more robust (read: expensive). Now what I want is a generalized, extensible app framework for handling the UI part of this, so everybody isn't coding their own multitouch handlers.

By: effugas

effugas — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 15:00:36 -0800

If you're interested in spending more than $2, trackIR gear is very cheap and VERY good. 120fps Infrared, with full software to do decoding. It's fantastic (just don't have an incandescent bulb behind you).

By: Skorgu

Skorgu — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 15:00:54 -0800

Anybody know what the music from the demo is?

By: Nelson

Nelson — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 15:37:59 -0800

I remember someone at the MIT Media Lab doing something like this back in the late 90s, only with soy sauce as the liquid. Very clever hack.

By: elpapacito

elpapacito — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 15:50:32 -0800

hincandenza writes "well that my friend costs a lot more than $2 to do." Yes but to some the cost of the additional $100 (?) to buy the product is greater than the revenue-cost of developing the application and hardware ; that seems odd only if you don't consider the capitalization of experience, which may have a value or generate a revenue stream for the hax0r. For ordinary users it only shows how horribily overpriced most devices are, considering how much the real developers are paid.

By: bluefly

bluefly — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 16:15:41 -0800

There's a lot of information left out of the blog entry. Which software is being used? There's more info in this comment (including the music choice).

By: boo_radley

boo_radley — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 16:18:36 -0800

dude come up with a cheap, novel way (MIT soy sauce aside) way to to an incredible gee whiz thing, and most of you are all "CLEARLY MORE THAN $2 WAS SPENT HERE." Honestly.

By: elpapacito

elpapacito — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 16:47:03 -0800

boo_radley writes "CLEARLY MORE THAN $2 WAS SPENT HERE" Hell yeah ! Cleaning bathroom, consider the following : the real costs are water ($0.0001) and a broom ($5/year?). Don't you consider the time spent doing the cleaning ? If not, please send me a mail with your time schedule and avaiabilty, you are hired !

By: polyhedron

polyhedron — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 16:56:21 -0800

I think the real issue is that this isn't very novel at all. I thought before I clicked the link he'd be using a camera. This sort of image processing has been done many times before.

By: polyhedron

polyhedron — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 16:57:56 -0800

It's still cool, though. Didn't mean to come across an ass. But it's not $2 and I'd be surprised to hear this was invented without seeing how some other camera based multitouch displays worked.

By: lekvar

lekvar — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 17:18:19 -0800

Actually, now that I think of it, this is the perfect solution for implementing an XY MIDI conroller using this softeware. I've been struggling to make it useable for a while now, and I think this is exactly what I've been needing. Thanks, Pastabagel and you!

By: Muddler

Muddler — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 17:29:09 -0800

Er, except for the iPhone does multitouch, just like all other other items listed above, whereas the Treo does not? We've yet to actually see any iPhone in person, now haven't we - and when we do, all that is promised is some basic touch functionality that may be pressure sensitive. If we're lucky, it will allow for two fingers to do something at the same time. Very little of the exciting multi-touch technology is workable on a screen size as small as the iPhone, and frankly the hard part and interesting part of multi-touch is the software that allows you do the very interesting applications - none of which will really work on that small of a screen. So, I ask again, why do people put the iPhone, which truly is just a step above a Treo touch screen in terms of usability, in with these much larger, much more dynamic, and very different larger units? It is on par with matching up the technology in a Treo with the highest end multi-core desktops and saying "hey, look, they are the same." Actually, no they are not, and should not be considered in the same categories.

By: phaedon

phaedon — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 17:53:05 -0800

So, I ask again, why do people put the iPhone, which truly is just a step above a Treo touch screen in terms of usability, Because you have no physical evidence for your counterclaims, and people will believe anything they see in a commercial?

By: Jerub

Jerub — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 18:50:02 -0800

I <3 my a href="http://fingerworks.com/">touchstream lp.

By: blasdelf

blasdelf — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 02:35:44 -0800

I <3 the < html escape.

By: nonane

nonane — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 06:08:32 -0800

The soy sauce haptic interface.