Engineering On The Edge

I can’t think of any product that gets “hacked” more often than Microsoft’s Kinect. This device, designed for gaming, remember, has been put to so many creative purposes, it’s a little insane. Here are some examples. I bet Google could come up with half a dozen more in the span it takes you to blink.

Ubi Interactive has taken the Kinect and tied it to a projector to create a touchscreen that will work on just about any surface. The projector creates an image and the Kinect measures how you interact with it. Your wall could be your new widescreen monitor.

Diagram of the system designed by Ubi Interactive. Courtesy of Ubi Interactive.

“It’s all Windows touch-based gestures,” says Anup Chathoth of Ubi Interactive. “We wanted to start with an experience everyone knows, but we can open up our API for 3D gestures. It knows exactly how far your fingertip is from the surface – when you actually touch it, that’s a click; when you’re not touching, it becomes a hovering motion.”

Don’t get excited about trying to make one yourself at home just yet. It isn’t just the projector/Kinect combo that makes this idea work. The program the Munich-based company has developed will cost a user around $500 when (or if) it’s launched.

Ubi Interactive is one of 11 startup operations to be awarded $20,000 from Microsoft for innovations involved with Kinect Accelerator 2012. The company is just as interested in creating business applications for its system as it is providing a new toy for individual users. Education at all levels could benefit from the hybrid, along with the medical and engineering fields.

“We are already deploying some advertising displays,” Chathoth adds. “It’s attractive to a customer because of the cost, the ease of deployment; it’s portable – an 80-inch screen you can carry inside a laptop case – it’s flexible and it’s also an engaging experience.”

Below you’ll find a short video demonstration of the system.

Source: Ars Technica