Intuitive human computer interaction (HCI) is becoming an increasingly popular topic in computer science. The need for intuitive HCI is fueled by the need for intuitive mastering and interaction with increasing complexity of software, amounts of data. Devices, where one or more users intuitively (e.g. with fingers) and simultaneously manage content are currently very rare, expensive (e.g. Microsoft Surface) and usually only provided as technology show-case.

An important advantage of such devices is the possibility of multi-user experience that enables additional ways of inter-user interaction. This makes this kind of systems suited for applications such as multimedia content viewing and browsing (e.g. in museums, galleries, exhibitions, …) and visualization of large quantities of information.

The goal of the project is creation of an open source platform that will ease the development of multi-touch multi-user (MTMU) enabled applications. No such freely available complete solution exists at this time. We believe that such a platform will increase the popularity and production of multi-touch systems as well as enable more rapid development of MTMU enabled applications.

Hardware

As a first step towards our goal we have set up a FTIR-based multitouch table to provide a hardware basis for the development of the platform.

The video below displays the existing demo software (developed by the NUI group) running on our table table as a demonstration of the concept.

(old test video)