Transforming Daily Life Objects into Tactile Interfaces

This article describes a few techniques to transform daily life objects into tactile interfaces, and presents the implementation details for three objects chosen as example: a light globe, a tray and a table. Those techniques can be divided in two main categories, acoustic techniques and computer vision techniques. Acoustic techniques use the vibrations that are produced when touching an object and that are propagating through and on the surface of the object until reaching piezo sensors attached on the surface. The computer vision approach is an extension of the technique used for virtual keyboards, and is based on the detection of fingers intercepting a plane of infrared light projected above the surface by a pair of laser modules. It allows for multi-touch sensing on any flat surfaces.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: EUROSSC
• Authors: Alain Crevoisier, Cédric Bornand
• Keywords: Acoustic Techniques, Computer Vision Techniques, EUROSSC 2008, Information Management, Tactile Interfaces