Natural Human-Machine Interface using an Interactive Virtual Blackboard

Input peripherals such as mouse, tablet or touchscreen, significantly contributed to ease the attitude of humans towards computing machines. They reduce the need of a keyboard and make the interaction with the computer faster and more instinctive, in particular for unskilled users. Next step would be the complete removal of any tangible device, towards the concept of "disappearing computer". In this paper we propose an interactive virtual blackboard, based on a video processing and gesture recognition engine, which enables the user interacting almost seamlessly with the system giving commands, writing, and manipulating objects on a projected visual interface.