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Multitouch Without Touch Using Wiimote

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the right-touch dept.

owlgorithm writes to mention that Gizmodo has a neat hack for the multitouch Holy Grail — multitouch without the touch. This hack turns the Wiimote into a receiver for IR light reflected from an emitter off of your fingers using reflective tape.

3 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Good Point by Tom · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You haven't seen Jeff Han's talk.

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    Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
  2. "Holy Grail" is pretty old tech already by bobbaddeley · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The "Holy Grail" of multitouch without the touch is a pretty old problem. I've been working on something at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for a while called the HI-Space table, and it was around before I came to the lab. It uses infrared and a camera and detects multiple inputs simultaneously, as well as object placed on the table. It doesn't require touching at all and works fairly well, detecting not only single fingers but each of the fingers, allowing the user to do different things with different arrangements of fingers. It understands motions as well, and can detect a swipe, circle, etc. Objects aren't tagged with anything special; they're just cardboard shapes.

    Here's a video of the HI-Space table in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFBoq1i81V4

    Here's an old link to some of the work: http://infoviz.pnl.gov/hces/

  3. Stuck in our past. by bigattichouse · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Seems to me we always seem to be building technology to make old ideas into a reality. I've always felt that all these hands-free interface ideas look like wizards waving their hands around in the air. If they had eye-glass headsup displays, they'd look like they're casting spells or something.

    Its not that it is indistinguishable from magic, its that were TRYING to make it look like that.

    Just a thought.

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    meh