multi touch pad for next to nothing

This blog post i will be talking about how to create a multi touch pad or table. These days, everything is going the way of the natural user interface (NUI). iPad, iPhone, HTC, Android etc etc.

I came across this technology while being blown away by a few youtube videos. People have been creating huge multi touch tables that microsoft sells for over $10 000 and making it for under $800.

I will be explaining a simple way of creating a NUI using minimal materials.

Things you will need:
Cardboard box
Piece of glass / acrylic
Piece of A3 paper
Webcam
Windows PC

Start by making the touch pad. make a hole in the side of the cardboard box and put the Webcams cable through the hole. place the webcam facing up and use some putty to keep it in place. Put the piece of glass over the top of the cardboard box and place the piece of A3 paper over the piece of glass and make sure to tape down the piece of paper.



Now that the you have made the touch pad, now its time to do the software side of this project.
Download the file bellow and then continue with the instructions
http://audiotouch.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/MTmini%20package%20v1.zip

Once you have downloaded the file, extract the file to your desktop

Run the file "confguration"
depending on your computer and webcam, play around with the settings until when you touch the glass, you get just a single white dot when ever your fingers touch the surface
Once your settings are correct click "escape"

Now that you have configured the pad, we can now run a little demo to see the results
Go into the demo file and double click on C++ demos and run the "Smoke_demo"

Now you should have your first multi touch application.

Although i would love to give you further information, i am only at this stage at the moment.
Will keep you all filled in once i make further progress.

Here is a link for a forum that talks all about NUI
www.nuigroup.com/forum