Touchscreen Progress 6

I set up a flickr account for posting some pictures of my multitouch progress. Just a few pics up there so far, but I will be adding to it.

In other news - progress continues on the software. Next step is to set up a configuration app which will let you customize your settings and 2d mappings. This is a bit hard since none of us have reached the point where we have a fully working screen. The last big hurdle we will face is figuring out what to use for the projection screen or using a 'compliant' surface of some kind. Also, I may need an IR filter for my projector (an IR remover not an IR pass). Futnuh has found a screen material which is fairly transparent to IR which is good news. The IR filter on the projector is necessary because even if the projection screen is transparent to IR, your hand ends up becoming lit up by IR which is no good. I'm going to continue doing tests to find a suitable compliant surface because I think it has the potential to solve a bunch of problems. Right now you have to press pretty hard (or have moist hands) to get a nice IR dot on the camera. Also, I end up having to use the screen in the dark because all the lights in my house put out a lot of IR. Ideally, the screen should be usable in any environment. A good overlay would be able to produce a nice spot without having to press too hard or have moist hands and could potentially block out the room IR, producing a nice flat, easy to analyze image. Plus it could act as the projection surface at the same time. I think it's just a matter of finding the right material.

In other news, I think I found a camera which should be ideal for our purposes. It's the Philips SPC900NC. It's a CCD camera that purports to offer up to 90 frames per second (for 320x240 no doubt). It looks like it can still do 640x480 @ 60 frames per second which is great. It really is a great webcam compared to the cheaper ones I've been playing with lately - super sharp image, lots of options and very impressive frame rates. The lense assembly is not too hard to remove once you know how - it's a little scary at first because you realize that the thing has absolutely no visible screws anywhere. But really all you have to do is pop off the grey lense cap and unscrew the lense assembly. And now for the funny part. I tried to remove the IR filter from the lense assembly. It unfortunately has the kind of filter which is pretty much impossible to remove. The back lense is glued to the IR filter (which is also a lense). I tried scraping off the IR coating but it absolutely wouldn't come off. Then I tried burning it off with a torch and it flaked off - but the lense cracked and it was pretty much impossible to get the thing back together. At that point I got that sinking feeling when you know you just flushed 99$ down the toilet. However, I realized that all I needed was new lense assembly that doesn't have an IR filter on it. So, I unscrewed the lense from my much cheaper (20$) 'nightvision webcam' and guess what, it screws on the philips camera and it works fine! plus there is no IR filter. I wish I hadn't destroyed the original lense before realizing this, but I guess that's life.

Comp USA is offering 20$ off the camera right now, so if you live in the states, pick one up.