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Look into an OSS equivalent of Microsoft Surface
http://www.microsoft.com/surface/
It looks a lot of fun, but tied to MS tech like Zune. Now we have the open GL desktops and stuff on Linux, it would be a shame not to use some of the ideas here and see if there isn’t a way to make photos bigger, email mom pictures of your dog and find places to take your kids that isn’t proprietary :).
I also think their vision is limited, data goggles and so on overlaying the entire external environment would be more interesting. I think a tool like this would be a great way of walking through data warehouses and looking at output from DSS software.
Added by Francis Fish 8 months ago, last updated 4 months ago by Jonathan Powell
Comments
This is something I’ve been wanting to look into for years. I’m a bit of a touch-screen geek.
The only drawback I can see is technology – all the really nifty touch screen technology is expensive and/or proprietary.
There are affordable touch screen devices around, but I’m not sure that these offer the best in features (single-touch only?). If anyone has any knowledge on this technology please educate me!
Martin Kaltenbrunner developed the Reactable and associated toolkits and processes at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona.
The reacTIVision framework can be downloaded from http://reactable.iua.upf.edu/?software .
It provides multitouch. You can make your own back projected screens fairly cheaply and get up and running with a number of languages and toolkits.
The AR Toolkit will allow 3d tracking, or you could always be cheap and hack some Nintendo Wii hardware.
Francis, Johnathan – there’s nothing holding you back! :)
HTH - DaveM
OSS multi-touch with a wii remote!
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/245