It’s always exciting to see my alma mater, Carnegie Mellon, in the news – it’s even cooler when they’re making technology that will probably change the world. Well, that’s exactly what happened as TechCrunch just broke the news – CMU researchers have teamed-up with Microsoft to turn any surface, into a touchscreen.
The idea is to project an interface onto any surface you like allowing you to interact through a touchscreen-like interface. This means that your own body could be a touchscreen just as easily as a notepad, desk, or any other surface. The technology works by using a small projector that is mounted on your body utilizing a 3D scanner to get information back from the user. You can click with your finger, and drag and drop just like you would on a computer.
Right now the product is being branded as OmniTouch but something tells me this will change with each of the gazillion licensing deals ahead. From cars to cellphones to laptops this technology has a huge number of applications and given how hot tablets are this could signal the beginning of the next revolution.
Okay, enough talking about it, want to see OmniTouch in action?
