We are going to be starting on a coffee table FTIR… Has anyone created anything along this line where the projector works at a close range.  We are talking about a height of only a foot and a half or so.  Anyone have any ideas?

Hi, Ive just joined and don’t really know to much about this multi-touch stuff although I understand everything I have read so far. I mean unless you have already bought a projector and or are making a massive coffee table wouldn’t it be easier and cheaper to just by a regular LCD and take it apart?

I’m currently in the works of building a coffee table FTIR, i thught about using a projector but it would either have to make my table have some buldge for the projector or the table would have to have a bigger height. I’m going with an LCD approach. Lcd is allowing me to have a very thin table.

LCD seems like it would work well but couldn’t a short throw projector like the Hitachi CP A100 work just as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Hitachi-CP-A100-projector-lumens/dp/B0014C3QYK/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=miscellaneous&qid=1214599991&sr=8-4

don’t forget that adding mirrors can help reduce the size of the table too.

welikesmall - 27 June 2008 12:53 PM

We are going to be starting on a coffee table FTIR… Has anyone created anything along this line where the projector works at a close range.  We are talking about a height of only a foot and a half or so.  Anyone have any ideas?

A foot and a half seems a bit short to me unless you are talking inner height of the table. I think two feet tall is a decent height for a coffee table. That projector you showed could probably work in a two foot tall table. It said that it projects a 60 inch image at 1.4 feet so if the image size is not adjustable at the distance you will want to make sure that it will fit the top of your table.

I also thought about using mirrors. My idea was to project horizonally from one end of the table to the other and hit a mirror that reflects down towards a mirror in the bottom center of the table that reflects the image up to the top. That should give enough throw distance, but I don’t know if the light will cross paths or if that will effect the image. I would go with the projector if you can afford it.

I original planned on trying a Coffee table but it became very difficult without a high-end projector to get a short throw distance. It will work if you have a tall couch but my modern couch which is only 9 inches from the ground made it impossible to do a coffee table. So i’m working on just building a simple kiosk type system.

I think the easiest was to get the coffee table going for only a foot or so is a LCD FTIR if you’re not look for a projector that can do a 1 foot throw distance with a reasonable screen size.

Youd better water proof that sucker! Else ones latte might crash the system!

I gonna build a FTIR Multitouch in a coffeetable about 45-50cm height. As Projector I use the “Inside” of a Rearprojection-TV. These ones have very nice Spects, Screenratio of 0,6:1 and less.

JanGermany - 15 July 2008 03:00 PM

I gonna build a FTIR Multitouch in a coffeetable about 45-50cm height. As Projector I use the “Inside” of a Rearprojection-TV. These ones have very nice Spects, Screenratio of 0,6:1 and less.

Nice.. Do you have any diagrams or sketches on how you are setting that up? I’d love to see how that works out.

Thanks,

I dont have all my things yet so I cannot test and I need a working table too
I would love to integrate it in a “Lack"- Table from Ikea:

But then I think, the table loose stability cause I should destroy the layer on the bottom.

Greets

Hah i have the same table in my apartment on campus its pretty stable even without the middle layer you can safely remove it to integrate to be a MT device
but just note the table is very low, i mean srsly low its only like 60cm in height…

Taha

No, 45cm height

this would be so awesome if it worked, i’m thinking of doing this too, maybe even with a dining table if i can get it to work.

Alpha Algorist - 27 June 2008 05:16 PM

welikesmall - 27 June 2008 12:53 PM

I also thought about using mirrors. My idea was to project horizonally from one end of the table to the other and hit a mirror that reflects down towards a mirror in the bottom center of the table that reflects the image up to the top. That should give enough throw distance, but I don’t know if the light will cross paths or if that will effect the image. I would go with the projector if you can afford it.

The light cannot cross paths, it is spread far enough part (The photons) that you could have like 1000 projectors crossing each other and it would make a difference. But it would be hard to get an image cuz they would be really far away, you would have to use lasers.