Imagine this! You sit in your home and just by a wave of hand you could switch your TV channels, learn a recipe that's exactly what Scientists at the Carnegie Mellon University, USA, have developed. A new technology that can enable users to turn any surface into touchscreen with just a wave of the hand. They have demonstrated that their touch-based interfaces can be created
anywhere almost at will. This is a significant improvement on earlier
technologies which required some depth systems (such as Kinect) to be
combined with a projector to turn any surface into a touch-screen.
The new system is known as WorldKit. It enables a person to rub the arm of a sofa to "paint" a remote control for TV or swipe a hand across an office door to post calendar from which subsequent users can "pull down" an extended version. These temporary interfaces can be moved, modified or deleted with similar gestures, making them highly personalized.
The researchers used a ceiling-mounted camera and projector to record room geometries, sense hand gestures and project images on desired surfaces. Users can summon switches, message boards, indicator lights and a variety of other interface designs from the menu. The developers say that the users will ultimately be able to custom design interfaces with gestures.
