Hello everyone!

I’m Mike… but you can call me Mikey.  I just got into this whole multitouch scene a few days ago.  I didn’t really know all this existed until I saw the MS Surface demo.  Needless to say I had to make my own so I searched and found Jeff Han’s FTIR paper, and then this site

Anyways, I got my first prototype working.  Right now it’s just an input device, I don’t have a screen and I’m working on convincing my wife to let me dismantle an LCD screen I attached a screenshot below of my software.  It takes the webcam input, filters it, then does some simple blob recognition.  No tracking right now (it’s kind of useless since I don’t have a compliant surface).  You can see the before and after images in the screenshot… top is filtered, bottom is original (it’s obvious).

Well, I hope I can give something back to this site in the near future.  Look forward to working with everyone here!

hi mikey welcome, your pic looks good, dont ask your wife, just do it

Oh don’t worry… now that she’s seen this proof of concept with the blob tracking she’ll give me free license to destroy anything I want On a seperate note gravano, thanks for the awesome multitouch howto document you made.  It really helped me get going on the hardware side of things!  Now I can focus on what I love, all the cool software!

Question though, I read through all of the topics on compliant surfaces and I want to make sure I understand.  So many materials/combinations were listed so I just want to clarify.  As it is now, is the best compliant still surface silicone-rubber with mylar on top?

the compliant surface would be the silicone rubber sheets yes, which we ship for 99 euros per m2, custom made, so if you want a 50 bij 50 cm piece you pay 24,75 euro’s, so much for to money talk, you can put anything on top of the silicone rubber, mylar, tracing paper, or rosco, which we will also sell , please drop by on irc.freenode.net on #ftir, we are in need of good programmers, that want to collaborate on stuff that already exsists, and not programmers that work on individual projects, but still thats up to the person himself, we try to unit the programmers (and other people as well(designers etc)) as much as possible and get a good open source framework, glad your wife approved

I don’t really use IRC, but I guess I’ll have to take a look at it now.  I would definately like to help out in any way that I can.  My area of interest with all this multitouch stuff is educational applications for primary grades.  I graduate in another year and will be teaching 11/12 y/o students.  It just so happened that before I decided to become a teacher I was halfway through a computer science degree

EDIT

Just FYI, I would definately be interested in buying from your multitouch store.  It does get a bit pricey driving all over and ordering all of these different components.  When do you anticipate getting that up and running?  If I decide to make a multitouch table a fixture in my living room I’d rather just order a kit that try to order all the components again.

Mikey, nice work on your first design there. Were you using LEDs? You have some very bright blobs there.

I am also interested in applications for education, so if you ever feel like sharing some of your ideas on some applications feel free. I may be developing some ideas in the music education realm, but have interest in all education.

Thanks cerupat,
I was surprised how bright by fingertips showed up as well.  My screen is 14x14’’ 1/4’’ thick with 7 TSHF5400 leds on two sides.

There are so many possibilities using multitouch for education.  I started a topic here so we can discuss this!

http://nuigroup.com/forums/viewthread/320/

@ miketavius, hopefully we officially start selling the kits within a month

gravano: did you find a supplier of the rubber sheets or are you selling sheets that you’d be making?

i’m in vancouver, canada: will you ship here?

i havent looked at the rubber-sheet solution (still using silicone on mylar) but sooner or later I will want a compliant surface that has no texture. when that time comes, i’d prefer just buying the sheets premade rather than mixing/creating my own.  we do not have fume/chemical safe labs at my university so mixing will be a hassel

-nima

hi nima, no we havent found a supplier for the silicone rubber sheets, we are pouring them ourselves. Sure we ship to canada, why not? if you leave me your email i can put you on the multitouch hardware webshop mailing list, as a matter of fact, we already start shipping silicone rubber sheets, these cost 99 euro per m2 / so if you buy a 50 bij 50 cm piece it costs you 24,75 euros plus shipping