I had to return the beamer today and tried if I could arrange it so that I could borrow it for the rest of the project. Unfortunatly school couldn't approve to that request and so my quest started in finding a company that could sponsor me a beamer, preferably short-throw, so I don't have to use a mirror. I am still looking.
The current state is that I have no beamer and therefor I can't finish my setup. I decided to investigate into how to write a class for Adobe Flash that can retrieve the data that is being send using the TUIO protocol and to process the data for easy use for my game experiments.
The class will be written in such a way that it will fire events for a finger press, release and drag and will give access to information like finger position, pressure and delta. I will continue developing this in the upcomming days.
Posts tonen met het label project. Alle posts tonen
Posts tonen met het label project. Alle posts tonen
dinsdag 25 maart 2008
dinsdag 18 maart 2008
Playing with the second prototype: Part II
Today I had to look for duct tape to tape the edges where the infra red light could escape out of the frame and I had to look for some tracing paper to work as a diffuse material. I settle for coroplast PVC tape and patternpaper, which I didn't even know it existed and if it would work.
I placed all the wires and leds within the frame and taped it so I don't have to worry about accidently breaking the wires. After this was done I was glad to see that I didn't have to worry about hoovering hands anymore.
Next was the possition of the diffuse material, it appeared that if I put it in front my blobs didn't get through, that's probably why you need a small layer of silicon to make that work. I put it behind the acrylic, so at the bottom, and my blobs did went through.
Now I have a working multi-touch input device, but not yet a multi-touch screen. So tomorrow I will borrow a beamer to project the image on my screen and hopefully that will be it.
I know the picture below is a bit chaotic, but it does describe what it will look like tomorrow.
I placed all the wires and leds within the frame and taped it so I don't have to worry about accidently breaking the wires. After this was done I was glad to see that I didn't have to worry about hoovering hands anymore.
Next was the possition of the diffuse material, it appeared that if I put it in front my blobs didn't get through, that's probably why you need a small layer of silicon to make that work. I put it behind the acrylic, so at the bottom, and my blobs did went through.
Now I have a working multi-touch input device, but not yet a multi-touch screen. So tomorrow I will borrow a beamer to project the image on my screen and hopefully that will be it.
I know the picture below is a bit chaotic, but it does describe what it will look like tomorrow.
maandag 17 maart 2008
Playing with the second prototype: Part I
The light of the leds were so strong that even when you hoovered with your hands from about 30 to 40 cm it would still detect your fingers. Meaning I had a hoovering multi-touch table, not quiet what I wanted. So I tried putting the adapter from 12V to 9V but that didn't make a very big difference.
After playing with it some more I came to the conclusion that the light could break free from small gaps between the acrylic and the aliminium, so now I have to buy some duct type to fill the gaps and hopefully it will work.
In the meantime I had to go to school to return the beamer and I have to come up with a structure for my research subject.
After playing with it some more I came to the conclusion that the light could break free from small gaps between the acrylic and the aliminium, so now I have to buy some duct type to fill the gaps and hopefully it will work.
In the meantime I had to go to school to return the beamer and I have to come up with a structure for my research subject.
zaterdag 15 maart 2008
Second prototype nearly done
Today I worked really hard to get the second prototype up and running. Paul soldered the last part of the leds together and I drilled holes in the aliminium so I could screw the L-shaped brackets in. After this was done, we tested the leds at Paul's place with his simple non-modified webcam. We were very nervouse due the fact we only had one chance, doing something wrong would mean that all the leds will burn and I would have to buy new leds. Luckely for us, everything worked like a charm.
With the frame and the leds I went home and had to do something really borring, namely tape every single led so we know for sure it won't break because it might hit the aliminium or something. After that I had to put it in the frame, which was harder then I thought because some of the holes were to large making the led constantly pop out. Next I could test and this is the first result (without the bandpass filter on the camera).
With the frame and the leds I went home and had to do something really borring, namely tape every single led so we know for sure it won't break because it might hit the aliminium or something. After that I had to put it in the frame, which was harder then I thought because some of the holes were to large making the led constantly pop out. Next I could test and this is the first result (without the bandpass filter on the camera).
vrijdag 14 maart 2008
Building second prototype
Alright instead of a story line, this time I'll post a sum of events. So on wednesday eve, I got the 30 IR Leds and with that I had all the equipment to start building the second prototype. I brought all the stuff from the shopping list to my good friend Paul van Dalen, who helped me putting it all together.
Unfortunatly we saw that the 10mm space in the H-shaped aliminium bar was including the thick edges and the acrylic of 8mm did NOT fit in. So we had to find another solution and so we decided to make the aliminium go all the way around the acrylic and let the L-shaped braces stick out a bit so that it can hold it.
It all cost more time then I expected and so at the end of the night we had the aliminium frame, with the holes and we had part of the soldering done. Then the next day, my unibrain firewire camera arrived with the lens and I was able to lend a beamer from school for the weekend.
Tomorrow, saturday, I will again go to my friend to finish the frame. I wish I could take photo's of the development, but unfortunatly I don't have a photo camera.
Tonight I will install and connect the unibrain camera to see it's speed and to see how it picks up infrared light.
Unfortunatly we saw that the 10mm space in the H-shaped aliminium bar was including the thick edges and the acrylic of 8mm did NOT fit in. So we had to find another solution and so we decided to make the aliminium go all the way around the acrylic and let the L-shaped braces stick out a bit so that it can hold it.
It all cost more time then I expected and so at the end of the night we had the aliminium frame, with the holes and we had part of the soldering done. Then the next day, my unibrain firewire camera arrived with the lens and I was able to lend a beamer from school for the weekend.
Tomorrow, saturday, I will again go to my friend to finish the frame. I wish I could take photo's of the development, but unfortunatly I don't have a photo camera.
Tonight I will install and connect the unibrain camera to see it's speed and to see how it picks up infrared light.
zaterdag 8 maart 2008
My visit with Laurence Muller
Laurence Muller is a master of Grid Computing student at the Universiteit of Amsterdam, he has been researching multi-touch screens since the summer of 2007. I visited him at his school on friday to see and experience his setup and play with the applications he could offer me. A big thanks to him for answering my endless amount of questions.
The setup he eventually choose was that of RI (Rear Illumination), which basicly means that the infrared light comes from behind instead of in the table top. The reason he choose this setup is because the FTIR setup can't recognize objects and he needed that.
First of all he looked at the photo's on my website and asked himself the question rather or not the camera was seeying IR properly. So I asked him what he used and he used a FireWire webcam from unibrain called the Fire-i Board Camera Color. A lot of people that are building multi-touch devices confirm that firewire camera's are the way to go, because they can process streaming data much faster. There were also some people that claim that USB is also slower because it uses a compression techniques to get the images across the (narrow) USB bus.
I am also going to order my Fire-i Board Camera Color (€68) on monday, together with a 4.3mm standard lens without the IR coating (€12).
The camera then only needs a proper bandpass filter to filter out the visible light and only let the infrared light come in. I will be using black photonegatives for this.
So next, the frame. After the whole frame has been build, with the wires, the leds and the plexiglas I should already detect blobs from the fingers. With touchlib running on the computer I could already test it out. For tracing and dragging of objects however, this setup needs to be improved for better performance. From what I've been told when you drag your finger across the glass there will be more air between the finger and the glass making the blob less clear. To get rid of this, you will need a silicon, like Sort a Clear 40, layer. On top of the silicon you will place the diffuse material, the nuigroup stated that rosco grey is the best way to go, but very hard to get as well. The cheapest solution would be tracing paper. The good thing about Rosco grey is that it blocks IR light from the outside, making the table more usable in different kind of environments.
Alright to put things into perspective, the layers will look as follows:
- Finger
- Projection Screen
- Silicon Rubber Sheet
- Acrylic
Last but not least, Laurence told me that in the meantime I could already look into developing applications for my future touchscreen by using the reactivision tuio simulator to simulate finger touches.
Download the latest version of Touchlib from http://nuigroup.com/touchlib/downloads/
Download the latest version of Reactable from http://reactable.iua.upf.edu/?software
The setup he eventually choose was that of RI (Rear Illumination), which basicly means that the infrared light comes from behind instead of in the table top. The reason he choose this setup is because the FTIR setup can't recognize objects and he needed that.
First of all he looked at the photo's on my website and asked himself the question rather or not the camera was seeying IR properly. So I asked him what he used and he used a FireWire webcam from unibrain called the Fire-i Board Camera Color. A lot of people that are building multi-touch devices confirm that firewire camera's are the way to go, because they can process streaming data much faster. There were also some people that claim that USB is also slower because it uses a compression techniques to get the images across the (narrow) USB bus.
I am also going to order my Fire-i Board Camera Color (€68) on monday, together with a 4.3mm standard lens without the IR coating (€12).
The camera then only needs a proper bandpass filter to filter out the visible light and only let the infrared light come in. I will be using black photonegatives for this.
So next, the frame. After the whole frame has been build, with the wires, the leds and the plexiglas I should already detect blobs from the fingers. With touchlib running on the computer I could already test it out. For tracing and dragging of objects however, this setup needs to be improved for better performance. From what I've been told when you drag your finger across the glass there will be more air between the finger and the glass making the blob less clear. To get rid of this, you will need a silicon, like Sort a Clear 40, layer. On top of the silicon you will place the diffuse material, the nuigroup stated that rosco grey is the best way to go, but very hard to get as well. The cheapest solution would be tracing paper. The good thing about Rosco grey is that it blocks IR light from the outside, making the table more usable in different kind of environments.
Alright to put things into perspective, the layers will look as follows:
- Finger
- Projection Screen
- Silicon Rubber Sheet
- Acrylic
Last but not least, Laurence told me that in the meantime I could already look into developing applications for my future touchscreen by using the reactivision tuio simulator to simulate finger touches.
Download the latest version of Touchlib from http://nuigroup.com/touchlib/downloads/
Download the latest version of Reactable from http://reactable.iua.upf.edu/?software
donderdag 6 maart 2008
The second prototype
Now that I know that the technique works, I decided that for my second prototype I will build the frame based on the FTIR technique which is shown in the picture below.
The infra red light from the leds will go into the acrylic pane and bounces up and down through the material. When a finger touches the acrylic the light gets frustrated and you will be able to detect a white spot, also known as a blob, with a camera that detects infra red light.
I am still waiting on the leds, but I already possess the acrylic pane. So for the next prototype I still need the aliminium H-shaped bar to build the frame, L-shaped brackets with screws to keep the frame together, wires to connect the leds with, resistors so the leds won't explode and a 12V adapter to give power.
I could buy most of the material at the following store:
Now I need to go to an electric store to buy the wires, resistors and adapter.
The infra red light from the leds will go into the acrylic pane and bounces up and down through the material. When a finger touches the acrylic the light gets frustrated and you will be able to detect a white spot, also known as a blob, with a camera that detects infra red light.
I am still waiting on the leds, but I already possess the acrylic pane. So for the next prototype I still need the aliminium H-shaped bar to build the frame, L-shaped brackets with screws to keep the frame together, wires to connect the leds with, resistors so the leds won't explode and a 12V adapter to give power.
I could buy most of the material at the following store:
HuboThere a bought the H-shaped aluminium bar (30x10x200), the L-shaped brackets and the screws for only € 11.10.
Badhuisstraat 95-101
2584 HE, The Hague (Netherlands)
(00)(31)703540360
Now I need to go to an electric store to buy the wires, resistors and adapter.
woensdag 5 maart 2008
First working prototype
Today I got a working FTIR prototype, nothing fancy yet, but at least it shows that the technique works. I used the following material for this test:
The acrylic I bought from a store close to me for only €19, the edges still had scratches so it needed to be polished. I was to lazy to polish the edges myself and so I found a store who could do it for me:
Alright so I had the IR webcam working, got the acrylic polished and the IR leds from my wii sensor bar. It was time to test it out! I placed the Wii sensor bar against the edges of the acrylic and did some testing with my fingers touching it. Guess what, it worked.
- Wii sensor barThe Wii sensor bar came with my Nintendo Wii system.
Will do for this test, still waiting on my ir leds order.
- Acrylic
8mm thick, 41 x 31 cm, to maintain 4:3 ratio.
- Logitech webcam
Adjusted to see IR led.
The acrylic I bought from a store close to me for only €19, the edges still had scratches so it needed to be polished. I was to lazy to polish the edges myself and so I found a store who could do it for me:
Scheveningse GlashandelI wish I could tell you which Logitech webcam I used and how expensive it was, but unfortunatly I can't trace it back. I can however tell you that I got it from the following store:
Heemraadstraat 249 A
2586 SW, The Hague (Netherlands)
(00)(31)703550488
MEG@1It's a ball-shaped webcam that really looks like the Logitech QuickCam. The camera itself is not enough, I had to convert it to an IR webcam. To do this I needed to remove the IR blocker which is found in every webcam (it filters the IR light to a certain degree). If you open the webcam it's the small red piece of glass between the chip and the lens. In my case I had to break it, because it was glued on. After putting it all together again I got the following results by shining the Wii sensor bar to my hand or a ten euro bill:
Badhuisstraat 81
2584 HE, The Hague (Netherlands)
(00)(31)703227578
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dinsdag 4 maart 2008
IR LED quest
The quest for the IR Leds has begun, I was looking for some 3mm IR-Leds (850nm) in the city, but could only found one company who sold them for €1,- a piece, which I found way to expensive. So I went on the internet and found a website called Leds-buy.nl, which appears to be a dutch company that sells IR-Leds for about €0.19 a piece, or €0.14 a piece if you ordered 25+. I placed my order for 35 leds, five extra just in case, and decided to get my resistors at Stuut & Bruin since they only charged me €0.05 a piece for it. Then I also needed a power adapter to power the leds and this they could sell me for €12,-.
So to sum it up:
So to sum it up:
€ 12.00 - 1x 12 DC; 1000mA Adapter
€ 4.90 - 35x 5mm IR-Leds; 850nm
€ 0.25 - 5x 68ohm resistors
----------------------------------
€ 17.25 - Total
zondag 2 maart 2008
Shopping list FTIR setup
I created the following shoppinglist for constructing my touchscreen prototype which is based on Frustrated Total Internal Reflection (FTIR). Tomorrow I will investigate where I can buy the material and I will add the prices.
FTIR Prototype Shoppinglist
______________________1x
Camera
Fire-I Board Camera Color
1x
Camera IR Lens
4.3mm Standard Lens (NO IR COATING)
1x
Acrylic
8mm thick, 41cm x 31cm, with smooth edges
1x
Metal Polishes (optional)
Brasso
1x
Sandpaper (optional)
Norton T223 / P320; Auto-paper P800A and P1200A
1x
H-Shaped Aluminium Frame
3cm x 164cm
4x
L-Shaped Brackets
16x
Screws
1x
Adapter
12v DC; 1000mA
30x
IR LEDS
850nm; 20 mA; 1,8V
5x
Resistors
68 ohms
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