Reading #12: Enabling Beyond-Surface Interactions for Interactive Surface with an Invisible Projection

References:
Enabling Beyond-Surface Interactions for Interactive Surface with an Invisible Projection by Li-Wei Chan, Hsiang-Tao Wu, Hui-Shan Kao, Ju-Chun Ko, Home-Ru Lin, Mike Y. Chen, Jane Hsu, Yi-Ping Hung.  

Published in the UIST '10 Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology.

Author Bios:
Li-Wei Chan is a PhD student at Nation Taiwan University
Hsiang-Tao Wu, Hui-Shan Kao, and Home-Ru Lin are students at the National Taiwan University.
Ju-Chun Ko is also a PhD student at the National Taiwan University.
Mike Chen is a professor at the National Taiwan University.
Jane Hsu is a professor at National Taiwan University.
Yi-Ping Hung is a professor at National Taiwan University

Summary:
Hypothesis:
By using infared communcations it is possible to perform interactions beyond the surface of a display.

Methods:
In order to test this a custom table was built that contained a light projector, as well as a layer of glass and many infared cameras. It then had another layer on top of that, a kind of projected layer, that would allow the cleanest interaction between the user and the device.

Results:
Users tended to gravitate towards the static object. They used the infared system to simply preform smaller operations such as selection. It became a way for them to better view an object but was incomplete as far as the viewing of 3D objects is concerned, and many users stated they wish that the light would function more as a mouse.

Contents:
The first step was for the researchers to actually build their device. They upgraded a DLP projector into an IR projector and had their projection layer above the glass layer on the surface. The Diffused-Illumination method was used in tandim with the touch input method. They had three different devices, the i-m- lamp, i-m-camera, and i-m-flashlight, that corresponded to create the image displayed.

Discussion:
This was a neat paper. I think ultimately while the did not succeed in their attempt to create this 3D surface, they did make some important break throughs. As most devices are moving towards touch screens this type of thing could have huge applications in the future. The ability to interact with a 3D object would open up whole new worlds of what can be done on a touch screen device.