Photos: World's largest touchscreen?

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