Hardware

Photos: World's largest touchscreen?

By // February 28, 2011, 8:21 PM PST // sonjathompson

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  • In 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.

    The university has converted its existing cylindrical 3D theatre into a touchscreen that can detect more than 100 touch interactions at any one time.

    Silicon.com's Tim Ferguson gives a look at this mamouth monitor.

    Photo: University of Groningen

    Captions: Tim Ferguson, Silicon.com

  • The touchscreen uses diffuse illumination in which a layer of material on the front of the screen is used to reflect infrared light.

    There 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.

    The 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.

    Photo: University of Groningen

  • The 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.

    The 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.

    Photo: University of Groningen

  • The 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.

    Photo: University of Groningen

  • The 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.

    The way in which interactions between users change will be studied by another University of Groningen research group investigating interaction methods for touchscreens.

    Photo: University of Groningen

  • The screen is 10 metres wide (33 feet) and curved to give users a more immersive experience.

    Photo: University of Groningen

In 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.

The university has converted its existing cylindrical 3D theatre into a touchscreen that can detect more than 100 touch interactions at any one time.

Silicon.com's Tim Ferguson gives a look at this mamouth monitor.

Photo: University of Groningen

Captions: Tim Ferguson, Silicon.com

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By Sonja Thompson

Sonja Thompson started at TechRepublic in October 1999. She is a former Senior Editor at TechRepublic.