About Me
My name is Taha Bintahir and I am an undergraduate student doing a Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering and Business with an emphasis on DSP and Embeded Electronics and more specifically human and computer interaction at the University of Ontairo Institute of Technology, Toronto Canada.
I’m currently doing personal research which i hope to spin off for my thesis in developing a Multi-user, Multitouch surface computing device.
This blog will essentially serve as a documentation of my progress in the development of Osyris Interactive IO a Multi-user, Multitouch surface computing device. As well as a informational resource hub for others.
Feel free to ask questions, make comments, or give post your thoughts at any time. If you are specifically interested in multi-touch technology, check out NUIGroup.com where you will find an invaluable resource of information and applications.
Hey Taha,
my name is Gabor and I am an international multimedia student in Australia Sydney. I’m quite fascinated by MT devices and was planing to build a touch screen for next years student exhibition. Then I found your site, which helps me a lot planing my ‘little’ project. I’m still in the process of creating an overall concept software wise. Had a look at vvvv and i’m impressed by this node based system.Since i’m not too much of an technician, I was wondering if I could contact you for questions that may loom up in the next couple of months. Anyways, thanks for posting your experience on the net. It already has been very useful.
Kind Regards
Gabor
G’day Gabor,
Good to see fellow Aussies getting into the whole MT scene… yeah sure you can contact me, i’ll send you an email.
You should also check out http://www.NUIGroup.com there is a great number of resources available. For local components you should contact Fairlane this is his blog http://orionmultitouch.blogspot.com/ hes from Melbourne he should be able to help you out in regards to where you can purchase components required to build a MT device.
and good luck with your project.
Hi Taha,
I live in Scarborough, and trying to do this little project at home, i’m wondering if you covered the LEDs using the silver tape? I’ve seen a few ways to doing this, couple involving just using IR illuminators, some with holes drilled into the plexiglass, so i’m wondering how the LEDs, frame and screen come together. From what i can tell it looks like you have the LEDs taped ?
also, did you look at home depot for the plexiglass? I saw you bought yours in ’suga, anywhere you found closer to home?
Thanks
Piras
Hi Piras,
i didnt cover the leds with silver tape… what i did was secure my IR frame to the acrylic sheet using the tape… basically what i did was put my arrays in the aluminum frame and put the frame around my acrylic sheet… then using silver tape i taped the 2 together.
At home depot the acrylic sheet there is too thin for the size of my table and an FTIR setup… it could work for a DI setup and a smaller size.
–Taha
Hey Taha,
I’m reading that you’ve used PCB for the LED connections? would it work just as well if wired? any reasons to go either way? What about the LEDs themselves, NUIgroup mentioned flat lens instead of the normal ones? any preference?
Yep using a pcb was a choice i made you dont have to use one you can wire your leds straight up if you prefer…. there is a reason why i choose Osram shf-485(normal) and not 485p(flat) the angle of the flat leds is too greate to sustain FTIR you’ll notice if when you touch the center of the table that it lacks sensitivity… because more of the IR light would have escaped… but if i were making a DI setup i’d used 485P because they have a wider dispersion angle.
Hi
MediaLab looks great. We’re a new start up in Lisbon, where we’re building a prototype MT table using touchlib. Is there any chance we could get an early look at the source code for MediaApp? We are doing various performance tests and it would really be useful. Please get in touch.
Hi my MediaApp isnt currently open source since its part of my project. What i can do for you is guide you in creating something similar….
–Taha
Hi
i am Nam, student on HighSchool in Berlin, Germany.
I want to introduce the Wiimote Whiteboard to our school to enhance learning in our lessons.
For this purpose i am searching for more software for
1. educational purposes that could profit from a touch interface like browsing in Google Earth in Geography or modeling 3D molecules in Cheministry.
2. MultiTouch Application for demonstration and Media Management.
Could you help me?
Regards
Nam
Hey Taha,
Its Piras, i’m having a problem trying to get the touchlib/screen/camera to work. I’m not getting the blobs on the screen when I touch it. right now there is nothing just the plexi in the frame. LEDs are working and no silicon, no screen, no tracing paper etc.
The config.bat firstly detects everything upside down. The, when i touch the screen, there seems to be no ftir. any ideas?
email me if you can help:
Hi Taha,
I’ve just recently been reading up on all this MT stuff and I find it amazing. Unfortunately however, I have neither the funds (for Projector/LCD above 15″!) nor the guts to try putting a table together. I am currently sorting out a conventional touch screen from a few industrial parts I was lucky enough to get my hands on and I’m also thinking of going down the wiimote whiteboard route, at least until I pluck up the courage (and all important money). Assuming I got the wiimote thing working and put together a couple of IR pens, would your media app work (or is it reliant on bits of the touchlib/tbeta etc software)?
Anyway, greater than my need to ask that question was a simple compulsion to write purely from seeing your endeavours (particularly the new media app which looks fantastic) just to say keep up the great work!
All the best,
Jon (in England- just adding to the list)
Hello Taha,
I’m a student Multimedia Design in The Netherlands, and i came up with this idea, of doing a touchable shopwindow. I have already posted a thread over at http://nuigroup.com/forums/viewthread/5325/ with more information. I heard you already got into the wallprinciple, and i have this very simple, yet important question:
What technique in multitouch is the most reliable when you work in very (sun)lit environments?
You can always send me an email.
for a Wall based setup i’d use LLP, it would be the best. and probably work better than any-other technique in direct sunlight
Hi, Taha
I also live in Toronto area, would you please tell me where I can find endlighten plexglass and LED’s in Toronto. I tried many places and online search, no luck
Hope you can help, thanks in advance
Hi,
I also live in Toronto, I have hard time to buy acrylic endlighten sheet and led’s in Toronto area,
could you tell me where do you buy yours?
Thanks
Endlighten is a Cyro product… i havent purchased endlighten. you need to contanct cyro to find there local retailers bought regular acrylic from Laird plastics in mississauga
i replied to your other posts
Hi Taha,
Thanks for the nice post,
I am building my first multitouch table using FTIR .Size is 640 x 480x 10mm. The problem I am facing is my friend has got me OSRAM SFH 485-P LED’s than 485. And since the radiant intensity is so low for ‘P’s , as per your suggestion in one of the forum threads I used total of 98 LED’s for all 4 sides and approx an LED/22mm.
Still I am not getting any blobs even after using compliant surface layer.Can you please help me since I am pretty much frustated with it now.
Hi Arun SHF-485P’s should work as well without any problems. I have a couple of questions 1) What current are you running the leds at? 2) Have you removed the IR filter from your camera? 4) Have you polished the edges of your acrylic? and 5) Are you sure your LEDs are actually running i.e. the is correct?
Hi Taha,
1. the voltage supply is at 12V , current is 100mA,
2. Yes, I have removed the IR filter from my camera (MSoft VX 1000 ) and using floppy film as IR pass filter.
3.Yes ofcourse I bought my acrylic polished from shop itself.
4. Yes all IR LED’s are glowing [checked it through mobile camera] but their intensity is really weak.
One more thing I want to ask is need I keep all the flat face of LED’s be touching to acrylic edge or slight gap (1mm approx) is permissible?
Also what settings should I mainly concentrate in tbeta so as to get best result.
hmm 1. can you upload a picture of how polished the acrylic edge is… and 2. floppy film is usually very dark i suggest removing that and without a visible light filter i.e. the floppy film see if you are seeing any IR blobs. If you do then i suggest trying photonegatives they work better anyway or getting a BP filter.
And to answer your question you shouldnt have a gap since SHF845P have a very bright FOV i suggest your push them to the face of the acrylic.
As for settings i cant be sure yet till i see what Tbeta looks like rite now so if you can upload a screenshot of that as well then i can help you more.
If you want you can add me to gtalk: tbintahir@gmail.com
Hi All,
Looking for vvvv coder and MT app developer for freelance job. For those interested to know more, please contact me at js7chong@yahoo.com
Hey Taha, I’m interested on how you managed to use 4 or 5 cams and computers for a single wall (Dubai),.. is there a software that will let you “stitch” multiple cams and let you output to ccv as a single cam?
thanks
You are doing amazing work..
Chris
PS: Do you create content as a freelancer? do you know of people that you will recommend?
Thanks for the complements… umm the camera wasn’t really stitching it was more of hack, where each screen was aware of the other screens and what objects were on it and how they were being manipulated.
Yes i do freelance work in my free time.
so how did you do it?
And are you planning to come back to Aus any time soon?
How did i do what?
Yeah i planning on coming back as soon as my degree is over. I’ve been looking for jobs on the net so by the time i have my degree in 8 months i’ll have a job lined up so i can come back i can go straight to work.