Below you'll find some of the last-round designs for our multi-touch screen enclosures. We should have designs finalized by the end of next week! While later than I'd hoped this has afforded us the opportunity to experiment with several touch frame technologies. The final verdict is to use the X3 Series frames from ZaagTech. It was a hard choice between the ZaagTech product and the PQLabs product, but in the end the consistency of the ZaagTech products performance won out.

I'm working on a product comparison in my spare time right now. As soon as that is complete I'll post it to this blog and to the NUI Group forums.

Preview of the multitouch television enclosure.

The surface of the screen is water resistant.

The design accounts for adequate ventilation and space for cabling

We sell things!

Two major advancements in the category of selling multi-touch kit.  One, the Locus is now fully on-line with Geek Chic.  The full listing is available here.  I'm very excited about where this is going.  I should mention that the images on the site are of housings designed for the vision based systems which this blog has been highlighting, however, the base products are using the IR frame technologies which I've grown to love.

That being said, the second bit of news is that I've opened up my own Web store.  Some of you may already know that I started a company based around multi-touch and that I've had plans for a Web store for a bit.  Well, she's finally live (here)!

The store is fairly one dimensional at the moment.  The only product offering I've listed is for the multi-touch frames from ZaagTech which I'm using for my projects and for Locus construction.  I have plans to expand the store to include various cameras, lenses, mirrors, and other supplies for the DIY vision and frame based multi-touch-ers out there.  Additionally, we are working on a super secret project which should allow for those less mechanically inclined to enter the world of multi-touch.  And, because I'm no good at secrets, the super secret is a fully self contained multi-touch display line ranging from 40-inch 1080p 16:9 screens to 65-inch 1080p 16:9 screens.

I'm very excited about the direction all of this work is taking.

For those of you who read this, thanks for sticking around!

Breaking Radio Silence

Hello again,

September and October have been very insightful for me.  I had been hoping to post an announcement regarding the immediate sale of our completed multitouch standalone table products in addition to the Geek Chic integrated solutions, oh, lets say, at the end of September.

The reality is that this stuff takes time.  I've been working with a group of Solidworks (CAD) folk who have been burning the midnight oil to produce enclosures for our table products.  This is extremely exciting but taking a little longer than I'd anticipated.

The good news is that we're looking at Nov. ETA's for our CAD designs, and then we can work with local fabricators to get ETA's for the prototype enclosures.  Then, we'll be in a position to post new work related to these touch frame based units.  I'm very excited to produce these and look forward to seeing where we can take this technology.

In the meant time! We've got a show this week where MindGene is presenting their game table software, d20Pro, on our tables at the convention.  They'll be running events from the touch screen as well!  Very exciting.  (d20Pro press release)

I'll be back soon. And I hope to have lovely photos and videos to share of the new enclosures!

Some videos from PAX West 2011

PAX West 2011 -- Mission Accomplished.

After the poor showing we provided at GenCon this year, we moved to a surface level touch system (IR MT Frame) for PAX.  The results were stunning.  Let me explain:

This was the view from standing behind the table

This was early in the day to boot.  The sun traced a path over the table the entire time we were demo'ing at the convention.  We had absolutely zero incidents of false touches or in ability to touch the screen -- amazing!

This was shot at the Geek Chic HQ in WA.  We dragged the table over to the bay to test in direct/indirect sunlight.

And here she is at the booth at PAX West 2011.  This is show with no flash.

An "action" shot!

The new tech allows for using virtually anything as a touch device, including spears apparently!

Most common question?  "Where's the projectors?" Answer: "We don't need no stinking projectors!"

Another fully body shot.  The canopy was added for use with the vision based system.  We liked it so much we included it this build as well.

One Red-Eye later, sleep is imminent. 

More preview content on the 60" table

quick post with previews for PAX Prime

I've been working on an LCD based screen which is, currently, only touch based with a max of 32 simultaneous events.

Here's two videos showing the table in action.  I'll post some true multitouch samples this week.  The first one is just cute...

here's a still of the table sitting on top of the 40" Locus Developer build

GenCon complete.

I'll post a real update shortly with information on the how the con went in detail and what kind of cool things are in the works officially now.

But to be brief (and get some sleep); The 'Con went wonderfully.  The tables were a big successes despite a pile of technical difficulties.  The flights to and from were terrible.  I was due to arrive yesterday evening, but instead I'm just now getting home today (the next day).

For a teaser...

Arrived at GenCon

Last year I came to GenCon and trusted the airlines to help me transport my screen technology to my chagrin.

Everything turned out okay last year, but this year we sent the core of our tables via FedEx to the hotel.  This lead to a very nice welcome as our packages checked in for us and they selected an awesome room!

So, here's the first pictures of the "tables" from this years GenCon -- more to follow!

Yes, these are boxes!  This is the camera's, cables, computers, and objects.  Screen's, projectors and enclosures are in a truck arriving tonight!

Computers and IR Light bars (in a computer box)  Also pictured are some backup diffusers for the prototype table that MindGene/D20Pro will be sporting.

Mini's, Fids, Mini-fids!  These are some sample fids on an acrylic sample pack from Evonik.  Oh, and some  tagged mini's.

Same as above just showing the tag on the Giant.

Quick preview post of the new locus in "action"

This is just a quick link to a self shot, one handed, Fruit Ninja experience.  I'll try for some decent footage, during and after GenCon!

And here are a couple of stills of the mock-up table running Dave's Mapper.

The "curtain" is some roscoe-grey I use as a light baffle on the working side of the table.

This build is using Diffused Illumination entirely.  The sides are less important to the over all experience, however, the production units will certainly have wooden sides.  The baffle around the screen is bamboo and the frame itself is walnut.  When Geek Chic makes a mock-up table from scraps, it reminds me how nice the wood they use for their production products is!

This build uses two cameras on some nice metal slide mounts.

Additionally, the IR light bars seen here are diffused using some stick on diffuser materials from Environmental Lights.  I found that to a double layer was as good as using florescent tube diffusers (which I'd been using previously).  Again, I'd like to stress that this is my dev table so I rarely attach anything in a permanent fashion.  Thus, the strewn light bars.

GenCon and Beyond

GenCon is around the corner.  I've been working my day job and then working on final build for the two tables we'll be showing at the 'Con this year.  We'll have a Locus MKII and "Spartacus" at the Geek Chic booth.  We'll also have the original Locus over at the D20Pro booth!

This is the first time we're going to be accepting pre-orders for our tables.  This makes be both nervous and excited.  I've been working in technologies and computers for almost 20 years professionally.  The sale of these tables means the inevitable "Support" demand will return in full force.  To account for a lot of this type of concern, I've attached 2 year warranties on all of the internal parts, but that only covers the hardware. 

Tables, and other technologies, of these sorts are certainly a hardware quagmire, however, like most hardware, without software it is just a pile of electronics.  So software is the key to making these things go and to accommodate this we've gotten together a pretty slick introductory package.  I'm still hashing out the licensing for including some of it properly, but that is just formalities and legalese.


[ DETAILS ]
Our current software bundle is designed to appeal to the casual video gamer, table top gamer and/or developers out there.  We're shipping the table with a handful of single person games/cooperative games such as Fruit Ninja, Angry Birds and Torchlight to name a few.  We're working with developers current to supply a handful of fun multitouch games ranging from simply Air Hockey to board games.  For table top gamers we are including D20Pro with a GM and small pack of guest licenses.  RPTools is also available for use on the tables for answering the needs for groups not using a D20Pro compatible system.

Developers get a slew of options for building their own applications.  MT4j and Eclipse come installed and ready for use.  Kivy the Python based multi-touch development environment.  Each of these will have a handful of demonstration/sample applications available as well.  To be honest, some of my favorite applications are demos in the MT4j shell collection.

The NUIT tables are also compatible with Surface 2.0 and Surface 1.0 content.  The Surface 2.0 SDK comes pre-installed for Windows developers wishing to play around with multi-touch.

The tables themselves will be running Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit).  Currently the hardware underneath is using the AMD A8 Lliano APU technology.  I've done some side by side testing with NVidia/Intel i3/i5/i7 technologies and have found the A8's to be extremely performant in comparison.  Additionally, the A8's produce significantly less heat!

Currently the tables are not running the touch libraries as a service, but this is just a matter of time before we're to that point.  This means that we still need the wireless keyboard/mouse handy for initial login.  However, once logged in and services are started, the keyboard can be put aside in exchange for a straight forward touch experience.

We're using a Shell application supplied by a friend/developer from the NUIGroup Forums as an application launcher.  This works rather well, but we are still working on customizing the look and feel of the shell itself.

All in all I feel we will have a strong showing for GenCon and PAX Prime a couple of weeks afterward!

Lots of news

There have been a handful of exciting developments recently. As I mentioned before, we're in the process of developing a larger table for War gaming and such. The prototype of this new table is due to arrive at my shop next weekend!

In addition, a friend turned me on to a new set of IR light bars from PyxLED. These bars are extra bright and can be ordered in custom sizes. For testing, I've ordered a batch of these bars in .5 meter lengths.

I've done some initial testing using the light bars with the existing Locus build. The bars are extremely responsive. The result is clean touch events from corner to corner. Very exciting.

Finally, I have been doing experimentation with additional screen materials. I've tested GlassVU, ICE HoloContra, and ProLight Films. The GlassVU dark grey material is slick, but lacks the angle of view required for horizontal installations. The HoloContra is lovely stuff, the material gives an excellent contrast with the black being slightly grey. The horizontal usage of the HoloContra product is good, but not perfect -- good enough for most uses however.

The ProLight Films however, show stunning results in the horizontal mounting department. Additionally, the ProLight dark grey gives blacker blacks and richer colors. As a result, this is the material I'm currently planning to use for our two test builds.

Which brings me to the next topic. In addition to the large format table using our NUIT touch interface, we're working on the final designs of the Locus touch tables.
As soon as I've received the two table prototypes I'll post photos.

Sneak Peek from the "Lab"

PAX East - Complete

Day 3 was a complete success from my stand point. We ran again for the entire show with only a bit of a hiccup when I pushed the currently underpowered CPU to it's limits.

As I'd been telling people at the show, the device I had on hand was my development hardware which is purposely underpowered CPU wise. This is to assist in our load testing process. Unfortunately, I can get a bit excited about how much we _can_ do on the underpowered box. The result is that I was running UniTUIO's Detonator, Torchlight, MT4j Shell, PyMT Shell, D20Pro _and_ MapTools on the poor thing. The graphics driver game up the ghost for a moment, which required an embarrassed pause on my part, followed by a the system picking up it's pieces and returning to a fully functional state.

From a purely developer standpoint, this was a great result. The application load I was presenting on the little guy was way over the top for most low end systems. Despite that the system continue to function as a touch interface until OpenGL froze.

This is the type of problem which wouldn't even be relevant to a production build where the touch layer runs a service. CCV froze along with the rest due to the graphic driver dropping out.

The rest of the event was lovely. I had lots of company throughout the day and plenty of happy people who were excited by seeing D20Pro and MapTools running on our Multitouch table.

PAX East -- Day 2

We ran the table for the entire show time today without any real hitch. I have one section of the table (a corner) which is not responding as well as I would like. I should be able to adjust that section in the am before the event floor opens.

Other than that I was very pleased with the turn out for and interest for the table. I met some friends who I met through PAX Prime. Very nice to see everyone again.

I'm in "the alley" behind the booth due to giant sodium lights which are apparently brighter than the sun. We've created a "Secret" passage from the main booth to the Locus. It's interesting the number of visitors I've received at my tucked away location.

I'll take some photos tomorrow and show the results of our funky space and what our current developer build looks like. We've nearly completed our physical housing build design. As soon as that's sorted I hope to post pictures of the completed system. Probably by GenCon.

Time to recharge the batteries. Oh, day 2 -- success (I survived)

PAX East - Day 1

We're showing the Locus at the Geek Chic booth at PAX East this year.

The Locus is the result of the Multitouch work I've done thus far to develop a coffee table Rear Projection DSI system.

I was happily surprised to find out that there were a fair number of people who'd heard of the table already and were eager to get their hands on it.

The final verdict? Day 1 was a success.

Worst blogger, ever.

Since my last post was in October, I've decided I'm the worst blogger ever.

Despite this, many interesting developments have kept me busy. I'm deeply in broiled in a project to monetize my Touch Table work. In an effort to drop cost and ensure a top notch product, I've been doing a lot of testing and development with cameras, illumination and lenses. Unfortunately, I can't post this information quite yet.

However, if you're reading this, you're probably hoping for the camera summary I promised back in October. I'm more than happy to share my findings, the results just aren't in a happy, postable document currently.

I will say this, resolution to frame rate are certainly key. I'm not done with the HD camera market, however, I'm using a 640x480 camera with a 100fps framerate for my build these days. This is primarily a place holder till a higher resolution camera can fill its shoes. My ideal is a 1024x1024 (or greater in either dimension) 100fps camera operating over usb3.0. Point Grey and Natural Point both have future offerings which may fill this need. It will be a different world for those of us who are looking to handle small objects in addition to solid finger/gesture tracking.

I'll be back and post more. It just may be awhile.