MIT gadget turns everything into a touchscreen

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 10 Feb 2009 at 12:00

MIT researchers have developed a new gadget that can turn any surface into a touchscreen computer.

Cobbled together from a webcam, battery-powered projector, smartphone and sensors, the device allows you to project a Minority Report-esque screen wherever you are.

Dubbed Sixth Sense, the device also responds to simple hand gestures allowing you take a picture by framing the scene with your fingers, for example. Alternatively, by drawing a circle on your wrist you can instruct the system to project a watch face showing the correct time.

While novel, the team behind Sixth Sense are also developing software to make it more useful in everyday life. To that end, the gadget can recognise items and retrieve information on them from the internet. This is then projected back onto the item.

So, if a user is looking at a book the device could go and find reviews online. This information would then be projected on to the book, and the user would be able to interact with it much as they could if they were using an iPhone, or other touch-based device.

Looking at an aeroplane ticket might bring up information on whether that flight was on time, and take you to the check-in website.

The team is currently experimenting with early prototypes of the device, but the researchers say it could be making a commercial appearance "soon".