Hello.  I want to build a multi touch screen using the best grade of everything.
I have a budget of $185,000 for this project.

Yesterday I bought the Sony VPL-VW200 for the projector.
I’m kind of confused on the part with the acrylic.  The first one I made was 37x21.5 with 1/2 inch thick cast acrylic.  When I went to pick up the acrylic, the guy told me that there are different grades of acrylic.  I asked him what they were, but couldn’t understand him because his accent was really thick, I just nodded my head as if I understood.

Basically, I wanted to get opinions on what the best material is for performance and experience. 

P.S.  I’ll post videos building this thing and also list where I bought the materials so if anyone wants to do this, they can use this thread as a resource.
I’m willing to experiment too, so if anyone has a suggestion (like materials that are expensive to experiment with), I’m willing to do it and video it with the results.

Thank you.

FYI.  This is my own money and I have a very large interest in mutli touch but never had the time to get in to it.  I’m taking a year off so I can do everything I ever had an interest in.  I like to do things on my own usually and find things out for myself.  I benefit a lot more that way, but it sucks up so much time doing it alone.  Getting input and suggestions from others who have knowledge and experience will help me move along a lot quicker so I don’t spend this whole year, just pursuing this one interest.

Well I guess it all depends on what you’re planning to build and who the end users are. Is there any chance you could share with us more details about what you’re trying to build?

I think the plastics man was probably referring to the different ways in which acrylic can be formed. The two main types are cast and extruded. Cast is basically formed in individual moulds, whilst extruded is essentially stretched out and cut into pieces. This difference means that cast acrylic tends to be higher quality, with better light transmittance and higher strength. The downside is that cast tends to be less uniform in thickness.

185.000 usd $ or pesos colombianos ?

if usd { 100.000 for a giant Jeff Han Multi touch screen @ Perspective Pixels
85.000 to support the NUI group }

if pesos { buy a cardbox and a camera }

I’m building the MT for myself.  I’m going to use it for many different applications.  I’m hoping to incorporate as many interfaces as I can.  Example - switching between single digital pen input, multiple digital pen input, and multi-touch.  Don’t know if it’s possible but going to find out today if it is.  Budget is in US $ dollars not peso.  Like I said Jim, this is my own money I am willing to spend on myself, not to pay someone to build it for me or pay for instructions.  I want to build it myself physically, but get input about materials to use to build and concepts that most people can’t afford to buy to test (if it ends up not working).  Read above.

Nade, thanks for the first reply and the explanation about the acrylic.  I’m mainly going to use this MT for everyday computer use.  Down the line after I finish making my MT, I had plans on having programs made for MT interface in checking email, light controls throughout the house, and pretty much anything else I can possibly hook up electronically to the MT computer. 

Most of the budge money is going to go into the computer.  I have to research finding a company that can make custom boards so I can fit for example 4-12 quad core processors, 32-160 GIGs of Ram.

Got to run for now.  Hope to see some input when I get back.

Thanks again everyone.

It sounds like you’re going to be wasting a massive amount of money on this thing.... What on earth would you need all that processing power/ram for? Why not just use amazon web services if you have a lot of data to crunch through? I could list numerous multi-touch projects which with just a fraction of that seed money could turn into multimillion dollar businesses - why waste it all on something which you won’t use? I can admire wanting to perfect your multi-touch table, but spending all that money on the computer part is a complete and utter waste - hire some developers instead and get some really neat multi-touch apps built.

I hope not to spend the whole $185,000 on this.  That mark is the max I am willing to spend.  I came out with that so I don’t go overboard and it also helps me keep extroverted mentally.  The computing power needs to be up there because I’ll have an option of attaching more MT’s to it throughout the house once I build this one.

Then just get some fast server racks so you can upgrade them easily, getting your own custom boards made up is just a wee bit too over the top if you ask me. You don’t really need a super computer to run blob tracking, a small server cluster would do the job just as well for a fraction of the price.

Ok.  I’ll do that.  Thank you.  I’ll go buy right now.

Thanks Nade.  I have no data on how to setup a server rack.  Googled it.  Came up with cicsco.  Any suggestions what I should get?  Also going to learn up on server clusters tonight and how it works.

I’ll start recording when I start to setup the MT.  I’m trying to find out where to buy thinsight or even a manufacturer so I can order a custom.  Hype said it was the way to go.  This means I don’t need the acrylic, projector, or the IR LED ribbons right? 

If anyone has info, please let me know.  I hope to get everything bought and ready to assemble within 1-2 weeks.  I’ll start recording my attempts of making this when I get all the initial materials needed to start.  Can’t wait.  I just got the PMW-ex3 so I’ll be using that to record.  Muahahah ha ha.  Don’t know what all the switches are for yet, but I’ll figure it out (trial and error baby!!!).

Don’t spend more than 6000$ for one table , for that amout you can make a verry verry high quality table/display.

For the camera use the Firefly MV , it does 120fps@320x240 , and is curently the best bet for something like this.
Chose what setup you wanna build DI/FTIR/LLP/DSI.

They all have cons and pros , with DI you can do fiducial tracking , but it dosn’t work as well in the sunlight and it’s quite hard to get the display eavenly lit.
For FTIR you need a compliant surface and that usualy degrades projection quality , and dosn’t offer fiducial ilumination.
DSI is a combination of FTIR and DI , and lastly LLP wich gives great blobs , but if you don’t know what youre doing and point the laser to your eye , you can burn your retina.

Don’t spend 100k on this , you don’t need to , that’s just throwing money out the window.

Thanks Vlado.  What about this thinsight?

BTW.  I don’t think I’m going to do the LLP.  I’m pretty sure I’ll go blind setting it up and testing it.

Ok. I just ordered the Dell poweredge 2410 for the rack.

I’m going to buy this server for the MT.

Description
PowerEdge Rack 900
Date & Time: September 04,2008 4:48 PM CST

SYSTEM COMPONENTS

PowerEdge Rack 900 Qty 1
PowerEdge R900, 2x Quad Core X7350 Xeon, 2.93GHz, 8M Cache,130W, 1066Mz FSB, No Operating System Unit Price $27,739.00
Catalog Number:  5 MLB1041
Module Description
PowerEdge R900 PowerEdge R900, 2x Quad Core X7350 Xeon, 2.93GHz, 8M Cache,130W, 1066Mz FSB
Operating System No Operating System
Additional Processor Upgrade to Four Quad Core X7350 Xeon, 2.93GHz, 8M Cache, 130W, 1066Mz FSB
Memory 4GB Memory, 4X1GB, 667MHz
TCP/IP Offload Engine Enablement LOM NICs are TOE, iSCSI Ready (R900)
Primary Hard Drive 300GB 15K RPM Serial-Attach SCSI 3Gbps 3.5-in HotPlug Hard Drive
Network Card Intel PRO 10GbE SR-XFP Single Port NIC, PCIe-8
Modem / DRAC Dell Remote Access Card 5 PCIe
Optional Optical Drive No Optical Drive
Bezel PowerEdge R900 Active Bezel
Backplane 1X5 SAS Backplane, for 3.5 Inch SAS Hard Drives only, PowerEdge R900
Documentation PowerEdge R900 No Documentation
Hard Drive Configuration Internal SAS Drive Controller, No RAID
Chassis Configuration No Rack Rails included with system
Hardware Support Services 3 Year ProSupport for IT and Mission Critical 4HR 7x24 Onsite Pack
Installation Services No Installation
Power Cords 2x Power Cord, C13 to C14, PDU Style, 10 amps, 10 feet / 3 meter
4th Hard Drive 450GB 15K RPM Serial-Attach SCSI 3Gbps 3.5-in HotPlug Hard Drive
Fiber Channel HBAs 3x Qlogic 2462 Dual Channel 4Gb Optical Fiber Channel HBAs, PCIe

I’m going to buy 3rd party memory and harddrive because I can buy them cheaper then what dell is selling it for.  I’m going to buy 16 Gigs for the first mt and buy more when I start to make more MTs to install throughout the house.

I’m not going to place the order until tomorrow mid afternoon so I can get some input about the configurations or if I should buy other then Dell.

If someone can please tell me if thinsight is going to be better to use then the ftir?  I already bought 1/2 thickness (should I go 3/4 inch thick?) cast acrylic and 5 meters of narrow dimmable led ribbon flex 940nm from environmentallights.com (should I get 850nm?).

NVM.  I already bought the stuff for the ftir, so I’ll do both.  I’ll get the firefly MV online today.

Is the Sony VPL-VW200 going to be the best projector to use for this ftir MT?  I can still return it, so please let me know.

Oh yea, Nade and Vlado, thanks again.  I’ll send each of you a 1g Ipod Nano for replying first with input.  Don’t know if you need it, but I have poop loads of Apple Products just sitting around, not being used.  Let me know where to send them.  Danka.