Advancing Large Interactive Surfaces for Use in the Real World

Interactive surfaces are only just beginning to break into the market, and they still do not o ffer the advanced functionality demonstrated with many lab prototypes. The path from a prototype system to a finished product for use in real-world scenarios isa long one, and many obstacles must be overcome. The design of an interactive multitouch table had to address issues like opticalrecognition, hardware design, and ergonomics. This paper describes in detail the construction of a large, robust multi-touch tablecalled mrT. It will show how to solve major problems of the di ffuse illumination technique and other challenges of constructing alarge-screen, high-resolution, self-contained interactive multitouch surface that not only serves as a development system but can bedeployed in the real-world. Additionally, to further motivate some of the design decisions, especially why the diffuse illuminationtechnology was chosen, this paper will discuss related on-going research projects on the application side.