Thanks for the great comments....
just some infos about the project..
I use Touchlib for Blobtracking and Flash for the content. Everything is based on whites photo app and TUIO Class.
I just modified some stuff.... for example when I move the windows its just the same code as in whites photoapp.
The video was shot at your anual diploma exhibition. I was totally worried about the lighting, but it really
worked well. No direct sunlight though. You don´t really have a chnace against the sun, not even with the blocking foil.
About the IR Blocking Foil…
I got this idea from some post in the nuigroup. I think it was the “compliant surface” discussion. Someone (Rockit I think...not sure)
mentioned some IR Blocking foil for normal windows… So I thought it might be a good idea to give it a try. So I orderd a piece and tested
it. I was pretty dissapointed at first, mainly because it didn´t feel like it was really blocking to much IR Light. In my countless tests and
experiments with foils and other materials, I tried to use stuff in various combinations. I then made a silicone sheet and tested all my materials
again. Anyway, in the video I used the following combination:
(order from the top)
------Your fingers
------Rosco Grey
------IR Blocking Foil
------Transparent Paper (aka mylar)
------Silicone Rubber (version 2 by gravano)
------Plexiglass
So this is quite a few layers
I´ll explain why. Putting the Rosco directly on the silicone gave pretty ok results, although
the blobs tend to get a bit fuzzy. The projection looks nice though, and it feels good as well. Using tracing paper gave me better
blobs, not that good projection and it feels not as good as the rosco. Putting the IR Block foil directly onto the silicone gave absolutely
no blobs whatsoever. But if you put the transparent paper on top of the silicone, and then the IR Blocking foil, I got awsome results!
The blobs where bright and whats even cooler, the edges of the blobs get much sharper, so touchlib detects them better. The downside was
the not so good projection surface, and the IR Foil is not so nice to touch. And because the IR Foil is kind of shiny, it looks like one
of those glossy laptop displays (which I hate, personally). You can see an video of this combination on the video page of my site, its with
the photo app. So I then tried to put the rosco on top of them, and it worked pretty well. So I went with this layering. Now because I´m using two
projection surfaces (transparent paper & rosco) the projection gets blurred a little. And the IR Blocking foil darkens the image, so thats not to good either.
So all in all its really a compromise. Its pretty hard to get all Layers perfectly ontop of eachother too, because they are totally different materials (paper, window foil, and vinyl).
So I would say the IR Foil doesn´t really block all that much, it does make the edges of the blobs sharper.
We really need to find a better material, all in one piece that just works!
p.s I orderd the IR Blocking foil from a german supplier. http://www.ifoha-gmbh.de/ I used the product number 1201500 They have two other types of IR Blocking foil, maybe I´ll try them.
