Multitouch Without Touch Using Wiimote

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.

Comments

Re:Good Point

[LiquidCoooled]

I can see this owrking really nicely with a glass table.
Who says you have to aim at the tv?
It might work coming to the actual glass surface which means you could lay your arm down and rest it like a mouse but you have the third dimension when you need it.

"Holy Grail" is pretty old tech already

[bobbaddeley]

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/

The goggles they do nothing

[Earered]

I'm sorry for the awful picture you will get in your mind if you continue reading.

But it occured to me that you could use a penis instead of a finger (giving it another use beside: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/03/21 )

(Why, oh why this thought came to me...)