So finally I was able to complete my first LCD FTIR Multi Touch Screen project. Once I gathered all the materials listed in the previous post, the housing of it all became an issue quickly. Meaning I didn’t want to initially set this up as a table top. I kind of wanted to have this on my desk so that I can play with it like a regular desktop computer setup.

Anyway, after some thought and an available resource, assembling and putting this whole setup together became clearer. I had an old Sony Trinitron 19″ CRT lying around at the house. Works but yeah who uses CRTs anymore? So I gut the whole thing out and left just the shell, meaning the body of this old and about to be recycled monitor.

Size and depth wise it turned out to be perfect for housing all of the LCD components. WebCam went all the way in the back. In front I attached Acrylic Sheet surrounded by IR LEDs in the inside followed by LCD, then LCD plexi type base, a diffuser that came with it plus original backlight tubes. The LCD power and other components were attached to the shell ceiling. Well it did take a little while to plan this out but was definitely faster than building the table for it.

After long hours of putting this together, it ended up looking like an actual regular monitor - except it ain’t.

Visit my blog for details and pics here: http://multitouch.geomentary.com/

And ofcourse the video…

HA! That’s awesome man!
The regular backlight doesn’t mess with your blobs at all?
It’s really bright.

GeoMan - 23 June 2008 06:53 PM

So finally I was able to complete my first LCD FTIR Multi Touch Screen project. Once I gathered all the materials listed in the previous post, the housing of it all became an issue quickly. Meaning I didn’t want to initially set this up as a table top. I kind of wanted to have this on my desk so that I can play with it like a regular desktop computer setup.

Anyway, after some thought and an available resource, assembling and putting this whole setup together became clearer. I had an old Sony Trinitron 19″ CRT lying around at the house. Works but yeah who uses CRTs anymore? So I gut the whole thing out and left just the shell, meaning the body of this old and about to be recycled monitor.

Size and depth wise it turned out to be perfect for housing all of the LCD components. WebCam went all the way in the back. In front I attached Acrylic Sheet surrounded by IR LEDs in the inside followed by LCD, then LCD plexi type base, a diffuser that came with it plus original backlight tubes. The LCD power and other components were attached to the shell ceiling. Well it did take a little while to plan this out but was definitely faster than building the table for it.

After long hours of putting this together, it ended up looking like an actual regular monitor - except it ain’t.

Visit my blog for details and pics here: http://multitouch.geomentary.com/

And ofcourse the video…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OPFurqwzxs

No it doesn’t. Turns out the backlight lamps that came with the LCD do not emit IR at all… I used the original LCD lamps as they come… no mods nor any IR Blocking film etc. I was going to but during prototyping, I found out that I didn’t have to worry about it… And yes BLOBS come in great through the LCD and lights and the couple of diffusing layers.

By the way I do not even have a compliant layer on top of acrylic. I plan on trying it out though and see what results I get, but as it is I dont need to. Just for experiment sake I’ll do it anyway.

Awesome. When I tried the diffuser that cam with mine, the blobs where not as sharp as they where with out it.
Yeah, other than the heat you would see looking directly at a FL, they don’t put off any IR. Makes them great for this.

Excellent work! I LOVE that you repurposed a CRT. There are thousands of them out there headed for the bone yard and you managed to salvage part of one and put it back in the loop!

Very cool. The image is really good looking. I was very surprised by that.
I may have to try an LCD MT again one day. Cheaper than a projector!

Ahhh… you change your icon. The last one always made me wonder if it was you or a picture of House MD.
That and for some reason I thought you where from new zealand. (no clue why)

Tinkerman - 23 June 2008 10:26 PM

Excellent work! I LOVE that you repurposed a CRT. There are thousands of them out there headed for the bone yard and you managed to salvage part of one and put it back in the loop!

Very cool. The image is really good looking. I was very surprised by that.
I may have to try an LCD MT again one day. Cheaper than a projector!

I have no idea what you’re talking about…

Thanks Tinkerman, I am glad you liked it…

Tinkerman - 23 June 2008 10:26 PM

Excellent work! I LOVE that you repurposed a CRT. There are thousands of them out there headed for the bone yard and you managed to salvage part of one and put it back in the loop!

Very cool. The image is really good looking. I was very surprised by that.
I may have to try an LCD MT again one day. Cheaper than a projector!

Great job , but I have a question , I’m in the process of doing the same kind of display , what kind of computer are the specs of the computer you are running touchlib on beacause it looks a bit laggy , and are you using AlexP’s touchlib mod?

You can get it here --> http://nuigroup.com/forums/viewthread/2173/ If you didin’t already use it.

Hey good work, it seems perfect and the idea of putting everything in a CRT shell is awesome

There’s just on thing I don’t understand, how do you proceed with the backlight ? On your blog there is this picture :

Do the FL tubes remain in the same position once the lcd matrix placed or do you move them ? (for instance on a side of the lcd)

Hey Vlado,

I guess I used the MTMini Package v1 in the video demo. The machine is decent, not super fast. Its a Core2 Duo pentium with 2 GB RAM running Vista.

I have heard about the AlexP touchLib mod, but have not used it yet. Now is the time for me to play with the software etc as the hardware is done now. Thanks for the link.

Vlado - 24 June 2008 07:10 AM

Great job , but I have a question , I’m in the process of doing the same kind of display , what kind of computer are the specs of the computer you are running touchlib on beacause it looks a bit laggy , and are you using AlexP’s touchlib mod?


You can get it here --> http://nuigroup.com/forums/viewthread/2173/ If you didin’t already use it.

Nicely done, I like the fact that you reused an CRT backpart for the components.

Paills, I think I mentioned it in my blog, but here it is… See those FL from the LCD hanging inside the CRT Shell? I assembled them back as they were with original LCD casing. So yes I am using the same FLs that came with the LCD itself for backlighting. They work great as intended and do not emitt any IR nor effect the Blobs.

Paills - 24 June 2008 07:11 AM

Hey good work, it seems perfect and the idea of putting everything in a CRT shell is awesome

There’s just on thing I don’t understand, how do you proceed with the backlight ? On your blog there is this picture :
[image]
Do the FL tubes remain in the same position once the lcd matrix placed or do you move them ? (for instance on a side of the lcd)

I like it , but something is really odd , it looks really unresponsive ,and you’ve used OSRAMS , maybe that’s beacause you are not using a compliant surface.

Blobs are very clean and come through fine. I will post pictures for those too. The lag is during tracking and maybe the version of touchLib I used in the demo. And yes, I dont have a compliant surface either. I’ll be optimizing this now and post the results with new video etc.

I’ll be waiting