TOUCHSCREENS
(Posted 2007-06-04 14:53:59 by ArchPaladin)

Found some interesting instructions [
http://tinker.it/now/2007/02/28/multitouch-table-experiment/ ] [tinker.it]
on how to make your own table-sized touchscreen.  Includes a neat
demonstration video.  And if you poke around in the comments, you'll find
that there's apparently a multimedia group [ http://nuigroup.com/ ]
[nuigroup.com] dedicated to developing this sort of technology.  They have
a similar model, and a video of one of their guys playing Starcraft on it.

I can see myself cutting up a really nice coffee table to put in a
self-made touchscreen device.  Probably one of those square-ish ones that
contain a lot of drawers and are meant to be put in rooms without TVs.  I
figure that with a soft (ie. on-screen) keyboard, the correct window
manager, and good focus model settings, I could get the thing to be
completely user-friendly without a traditional keyboard or mouse.  Add in
support for Bluetooth, wireless, and a good audio or entertainment system
in the room and I think I could get it to be useful for browsing the net,
listening to music, controlling an entertainment system, and interacting
with peripherals like mp3 players, digital cameras, and so on.

Sadly, I'm not too sure about the WAF (wife/woman acceptance factor) on
such a device, so I'm not sure this will ever actually get done.  In
general I think that the idea of modifying a coffee table is the point
where things get shaky.  If that wasn't a problem, it could be well
received.

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There are 2 comments on this post:

Comment #1 by Colie ( ivetriedtoforget@yahoo.com ) on 2007-06-04 21:55:03
it could be negotiable

Comment #2 by ArchPaladin ( blog@archpaladin.net ) on 2007-06-05 12:46:10
I guess we'd have to discuss where we'd want to put it, how it should look,
whether or not we could actually use it as a table, and similar things.

I'll probably bring this up later.