\n\tIn Groningen, The Netherlands sits the University of Groningen’s Reality Touch Theatre which at 10 meters (33 feet) wide is called the biggest touchscreen interface in the world.
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\n\tThe university has converted its existing cylindrical 3D theatre into a touchscreen that can detect more than 100 touch interactions at any one time.
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\n\tSilicon.com’s Tim Ferguson gives a look at this mamouth monitor.
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\n\tPhoto: University of Groningen
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\n\tCaptions: Tim Ferguson, Silicon.com
\n\tThe touchscreen uses diffuse illumination in which a layer of material on the front of the screen is used to reflect infrared light.
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\n\tThere are six optical motion-capture and motion-tracking cameras and 16 infrared illuminators – with a total of more than 1,000 infrared LEDs – located behind the screen.
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\n\tThe cameras are unable to see through the diffuse layer, and when people touch the front of the screen, the infrared light reflected back shows the computer system where the screen is being touched.
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\n\tPhoto: University of Groningen
\n\tThe screen reacts to the input of users in no more than 50 milliseconds and also has a 120Hz stereo system to add to the experience.
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\n\tThe technology used to create the touchscreen consists of off-the-shelf hardware and public domain software, including the Multi-Touch Vista user input management layer, Multitouch for Java, Community Core Vision machine-sensing technology and the Tuio protocol for multitouch devices.
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\n\tPhoto: University of Groningen
\n\tThe facility is being used by academics researching geographic information systems that capture, analyse and present data using techniques such as cartography, statistical analysis and database technology.
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\n\tPhoto: University of Groningen
\n\tThe large screen size changes the way in which people interact with each other and with the data on screen. For example, users can work in their own area but quickly switch to working as a group on the same screen.
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\n\tThe way in which interactions between users change will be studied by another University of Groningen research group investigating interaction methods for touchscreens.
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\n\tPhoto: University of Groningen
\n\tThe screen is 10 metres wide (33 feet) and curved to give users a more immersive experience.
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\n\tPhoto: University of Groningen
My name is Sonja Thompson. I've worked for TechRepublic since October of 1999, starting with the enewsletter team, then with the Premium Products group (creating books and CDs), as well as programming some of the elements on the site. After leading the Tech News team on TR, I jumped at the opportunity to switch gears and try my hand at video editing, podcasts, and other forms of multimedia on the site. I'm currently the host of the Smartphones blog, plus I edit the TR Dojo video series. \ \ I graduated from the University of Louisville. Since then, I've also completed several technology related courses from SmartPlanet. My goal is to learn about the TR community, interact with members on the site, and hopefully encourage more people to participate - and more often.
