TouchAble - A Camera-Based Multitouch System

Touchscreens enable users to interact directly and intuitively with computers by simply touching the display area without requiring any intermediate devices. There are various touchscreen technologies that generally utilize resistive or capacitive panels. Typical touchscreens are constrained by the fixed size and high cost panels. Many research efforts have been made towards achieving multitouch functionality using vision-based systems. However, existing approaches have limitations such as relying on pre-defined gestures, requiring users to wear a glove with a custom pattern, or using infrared light pens. We present TouchAble, a camera-based multitouch system using wireless camera sensor nodes to enable multitouch capability on any two-dimensional display surface (e.g. a projection screen or laptop monitor).