$5 Sensor Turns LCD Monitors Into Touchscreens

An anonymous reader writes with this snippet from ExtremeTech: "Researchers at the University of Washington's aptly named Ubiquitous Computing Lab can turn any LCD monitor in your house into a touchscreen, with nothing more than a $5 sensor that plugs into the wall and some clever software." The system works by measuring changes that your hand creates in the electromagnetic signature of the monitor. Surprisingly, it offers some pretty fine-grained detection, too: "full-hand touch, five-finger touch, hovering above the screen, pushing, and pulling." The "$5 sensor" part is mostly theoretical for now to those of us who don't live in a lab, though; on the other hand, "co-author Sidhant Gupta tells Technology Review that the $5 sensor uses off-the-shelf parts, and the algorithms are included in the paper, so it would be fairly easy for you — or a commercial entity — to recreate the uTouch system."

Comments

chance for microsoft

[postmortem]

Because otherwise nobody would pay extra for a touch screen PC with Windows 8

Re:chance for microsoft

[donaldm]

Because otherwise nobody would pay extra for a touch screen PC with Windows 8

Actually you are quite right and the product may be very practical for monitors or even HD TV's that don't have touch/gesture capability. The problem I have had with all touch screens is actually the finger marks left on them and for larger screen monitors cleaning becomes an annoyance. A friend of mine recently purchased a Samsung 15.6 in notebook and no surprises it came with MS Windows 8, however this notebook does not have a touch screen and using the display with a mouse IMHO is odd since the main display consists of horribly designed tiles.

I know many will disagree with my observation of MS Windows 8 but I personally like an uncluttered desktop on a large screen although I am quite happy with the IMHO nicely designed icons of the iPhone and Android machines, but tiles (again my opinion) ugh!

Re:i prefer

[oodaloop]

Does it come with bourbon?

The LCD monitor will make a lousy touchscreen

[fustakrakich]

It's not really designed to have your finger smashing against it. It better have a hard surface.

Re:The LCD monitor will make a lousy touchscreen

[Anonymous Coward]

Some of things can be responsive to having a finger mashed against them and not sustain damage, even if they are soft and unprotected with a hard shell.

Just ask your girlfriend.

Re:The LCD monitor will make a lousy touchscreen

[OhSoLaMeow]

Some of things can be responsive to having a finger mashed against them and not sustain damage, even if they are soft and unprotected with a hard shell.

Just ask your girlfriend.

Think again about where you're posting this.

Very Cool

[SpamSauce]

Hopefully someone makes this a commercial product. I would gladly pay $20 for this.

Re:Very Cool

[SpamSauce]

Yes. It wouldn't matter much for the home jukebox that I have always wanted to build.

Re:Very Cool

[omnichad]

But if you don't mind having buttons on it, check this out:
http://www.u-hid.com/home/index.php

Looks great. I just googled it based on seeing your comment and lo and behold, it does exist.

Two words

[hugortega]

Gorilla Arm ... Well, more ... Why people still believe that desktop computers are good as a touch device? That makes no sense for me, specially because the ugly fingerprints hehe. I love to *work* on my dual head desktop because the speed of keyboard and big resolution. If I have to use a touch device, it's not for work and not on a desktop, really. Anyway, nice research, I have to say.

Touch screen or big button?

[wagnerrp]

Is there any indication this will ever be able to detect position, as opposed to just the size and duration of something in proximity to the monitor?

Re:Touch screen or big button?

[theIsovist]

I was fortunate enough to see all the work that these guys are pursuing (there's some really fun energy monitoring that they've developed, using only a single device to monitor a whole house). From what it sounds like, the sensing systems are very low resolution, useful for exactly what you said. Is something there and how big is it? As the system is just noticing a flux in energy when your hand interacts with the field given off by the monitor, they (when they spoke with us a few months ago) said it seemed unlikely.

Fun fact though, they've used the same technology to monitor the fields generated by the lights in a room, so you can actually gain a picture of movement in the room based off of only the flux in the lights' power draws. Again, this is very low resolution, but you don't always need every system to be high res.

Cost

[Arkiel]

5$ sensor. $2,500 software license.

Cost

[Arkiel]

5$ sensor. 2,500$ software license.

Good bomb trigger

[gb7djk]

Set one of these up, together with some surveillance, train the device to recognise the mark and where he is (in conjunction with the now mandatory CFL bulbs as well as the tv and computer screens) and when you gets to just the right place - let off the shaped charge. It's clean, capable of discerning whether there is any collateral damage potential (and wait until the mark is alone) and economical as well (only use just the charge you need).

Re:It's good to know

[MozeeToby]

The resolution of this is actually pretty low, it can detect gestures and proximity but the authors say not enough accuracy to type an email. Of course, being able to do some basic gestures for $5 sounds like a pretty neat hack, especially considering they've posted their COTs parts and algorithms.

Re:i prefer

[tom17]

No but it does come with uncomfortable silences.

Re:i prefer

[Spy Handler]

I just touched my 27 inch LCD monitor and it was a bad experience. The screen looked like it deformed and pushing liquid to the side. Plus it left a greasy fingerprint. I wouldn't buy this thing for $5 or 5 cents.

Keep your greasy fingers off my matte screen...

[dargaud]

...or I WILL punch you in the mouth. It's impossible to clean it up completely. Nor do I want to.

Re:Gorilla arm is bad!

[nukenerd]

I've been stting here wondering how on earth anyone could claim that touching the screen is faster or more convenient than a "mouse".

It has just dawned on me why - most of you people use an actual mouse. I use a trackball.

When I see "mouse" in instructions or in these discussions I subconciously translate to "trackball" for my own situation. But here the difference really matters. With a flick of my thumb I can spin my trackball and move across the screen much faster and with far less effort than someone can move their whole arm, or mouse. Even if the mouse does not first run up against the edge of the mouspad or that pile of books.

Just as a trial, I just waved my arm around my screen as if I were using touch. It's lousy, no way would I prefer to that to a trackball, even ignoring the greasy screen issue.

sensor and apple

[renegade600]

don't let apple get a hold of it, it would turn into a 200 dollar sensor.

Add an extra $5 straightaway

[caspy7]

...for the screen cleaner & cloth that comes with it.