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Step 7: Giving Life to your table (Hardware) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Step 8: LED Setup (Hardware/Circuits) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Step 9: Acrylic Setup/ IR setup (Hardware) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Step 10: Did I break it? Testing the TV (Hardware/Information) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Step 11: Understanding the software (Information) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 File Downloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Step 12: Choosing an OS (Information) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Step 13: CCV, Touch Injector and the Cleye + CCV tests (Warez) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Step 14: Calibration (Software) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Step 15: Test run (Software) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Step 16: Done!!! (Happiness) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
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Comparison to PixelSense: The first PixelSense used a different technique called Rear-Diffused Illumination ( Rear DI). By Rear DI, the maker is required to use IR illuminators on the underside of the screen. Because of this, it is nearly impossible to create using LCDs due to the IR light reflecting from the back panel. Thus, people will usually use a short throw projector (usually more expensive if you want HD quality). All in all, DSI allows for higher visual quality at a reduced price. Input detection remains the same. Why make one of these when you have a smartphone? Typically, smartphones and tablets use either capacitive, resistive, or surface acoustic wave screens in order to detect user touch points. Capacitive uses the electrical properties of human bodies in order to detect user inputs at certain points (the skin of your fingertips). Thus, devices using this screen are highly sensitive and neglect pressure--meaning that users cannot use regular styluses or gloved hands. In addition to this, the cost for capacitive layering on a large scale project would be tremendous. Resistive screens simply rely on pressure as they are built by layering screens. For resistive, there is an inconvenience in that building this setup would require the user to create layering patterns with little promise of multi-input detection. In Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) screens, when a panel is touched, the ultrasonic waves exerted in the panels are absorbed at those points and this registers a position for touch events to the controller for processing. This would be burdensome if applied to larger screens. However, infrared technology holds the advantage of being able to deliver superior images without an overlay while granting the ability to detect most objects. Also, the ability to use fiducial markers (programmable blocks). Also, they tend to have the higher number of Maximum touch inputs. What is the first thing to worry about after I have my design plan ready? The first thing you should worry about is your LCD TV. You won't be able to use just any TV as there may be issues. I will explain this in more detail soon.
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Depends on the display. A 1024x768 TV has 1024 columns and 768 rows, so if we multiply that by 3 pixels, we get 2,359,296 TFTs etched onto the glass panel. If that doesn't impress you, wait until you see how thin the screen really is and what happens when you turn it on away from its casing! Why should you care about all of this? In building your table, you are going to have to make predictions and decisions. You won't always have a perfect display built. Sometimes, you're going to have to figure things out from the fundamentals in order to make sure you didn't just waste $$$$. Also, depending on your setup, you may have to predict the display size of your LCD based on the properties of the screen. More importantly, this is knowledge! so take it in! III. Things I should worry about in regards to the TV I will use for the table: 1. The FFC Issue as defined on the NUI Group Forums is when the FFC cables are either too small or fragile to be manipulated into building a Multi touch setup. The Flat Flex Cable is the cable that you will find connecting the LCD matrix to the Control boards. This can become a problem as they are hard to replace and if the get in the way of the construction, they may cause accidental damage. Fortunately, there are links to databases with TVs that do not have this problem and are perfect for Multi touch setups: 1. Small LCDs: http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/L... 2. Large LCDs: http://wiki.nuigroup.com/Large_LCD_Monitors 3. Alternatively, you could just stick with the Vizio as it is perfect 2. The Aspect Ratio: You need to know your aspect ratio so that you can approximate the size of your LCD in order to create your chassis, or box. Most LCDs nowadays are 16:9 since this is the HDTV Standard. That is, 16 units of height for 9 units of width. Use similar triangles (yes, math) in order to determine the size of your LCD screen. Of course, this is only necessary in the case you do not want to rip the TV apart until you have everything else (Acrylic, wood, etc). 3. Contrast Ratio: This is the measure between the brightest possible image and the darkest possible image. White/Black = Contrast Ratio. Unfortunately, there is no actual metric to standardize this so companies just exaggerate things such as 1000000000:1 (who knows what that means?) This matters only in terms of vanity-say you wanted the clearest possible image to be displayed on your LCD. An LCD with a high dynamic ratio is better than an LCD with a native that gives the same ratio; however, an LCD with a higher native ratio is superior. Native describes what the LCD is able to produce on its own and dynamic refers to using circuitry to assist the panel in accordance to ambient light. What about glare when the LCD is laying down? The LCD screen comes with a set viewing angle that ensures the best possible picture--most consumer don't know this and miss out on the full experience. A Bias angle is designed to offset this angle. Because of this, your angle of acceptable viewing is made much larger. There is still an area of unacceptable contrast, but you will most likely not reach it. *You can learn a lot more about LCDs on HowStuffWorks.com: Link: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/lcd.htm
Step 3: Steps in determining your LCD screen dimensions before-hand (optional math information)
1. The first thing to do in determining the LCD size is to find out what your aspect ratio is. The beautiful thing is that LCD retailers are required to release a specs sheet concerning the capabilities and basic information regarding the TV. In these, the most notable of specs is the aspect ratio--usually 5:4 or 16:9. 2. Next, determine the size of your diagonal from these sheets. A display that is 47" isn't exactly 47" (it may actually be 46.85 or 46.96, which actually matters). Find this on your spec sheets and write it down. 3. Next, use triangle-angle relationships to determine the angle opposite the horizontal and vertical measurement of your display using the aspect ratio. 1. For example, a 16:9 ratio LCD will have 16 units of measure for the horizontal component and 9 for the vertical. The angle opposite is the given by cos (16/proper diagonal measure). For a television of a 46.96" diagonal, Cos(16/46.96") = 60.64224646 degrees, which makes sense. 4. Next, setup a similar triangle diagram where the 16:9 is within the LCD. You are to find the X and Y components of the outer triangle. You use law of sines with the angle determined above to find this. 1. For example, following our calculations, [Sin(60.642)/9] = [(x/46.96")/x] given that y = 9x/16. 2. This will give you an approximation of 40.92918722/23.02266781 which falls under 16:9 ratio when reduced. This however, is not exact but fairly close.
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13. You will see a metal back-plate with holes. Through those holes, you will likely see white sheets. Those are the diffusers and we are trying to get to those. Unscrew the screws holding the plate together and remove the plate. To do this, we have to take the front plastic casing off so you'll have to flip the TV. Do this carefully as you do not want to risk damaging the LCD panel. 14. Take the casing off and work your way unscrewing until you get to the LCD panel. Gently and safely remove the connectors to the panel. The green and brown connectors DO NOT come off. If it looks like it won't come off, it most likely won't. Be very careful here. 15. Lay the LCD panel safely on a flat surface and wrap it with a blanket or something that will protect it. The panel is ~2 mm thick and thus, easily warped. Have a friend help you handle it so you distribute the weight evenly. Now think back to all that theory you read in the previous section and be amazed at how compact the panel is. 16. Right under the LCD are the white diffusers. Take care as they are likely to be statically charged. The diffusers serve to evenly distribute the white light under the panel from the back-light. You may not need all three though. We opted to use the thickest one as the others did nothing for us. The case may be different for you. For now, just keep them until the testing of the LCD display. 17. Do what you will with the back-light. If you opt for a size < 25" diagonal, you may actually make the factory light work and circumvent the cost of white LEDs. If not, do what you will with it--for the purpose of this table, it is no longer needed. **Need more Pictures? This gentleman over at the NUI Forums was the one responsible for tipping us on the Vizio. He also did a tear down and included a couple of pictures worth taking a look at. I lost most of my pictures in transferring them from my phone so I used his as my first image on this section. Credit goes to him on that note.
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-------Protective (3-5 mm)---------=======IR( 8-10 mm)======== ~~~~~~~LCD (2 mm)~~~~~~~~~ **********Diffuse( 1-2 mm)********** _______Support (8 mm)________ . . . . ~3 ft . . . _________|--camera--|___________ **Report: Heavy ghosting occurred due to the support being so thick. Also, the collisions in the IR wouldn't escape the 10 mm piece through the diffuse layer. Barely got blobs registered unless the the user increased pressure of touch (which could harm the integrity of the system) AND removed the protective layer. Also, the distance between the camera and layers was too great. Discovered that it works better if the camera distance was reduced, the thickness of the IR and support were reduced: -------Protective (3 mm)---------=======IR( 8 or less mm)== ~~~~~~~LCD (2 mm)~~~~~~~~~ **********Diffuse( 1-2 mm)********** _______Support (<8 (maybe 3) mm)________ . ~ 1-2 ft _________|--camera--|___________ This seems to be what will work best. 2. The next setup worked due to the sturdiness of the box: =======IR( 8 mm)======== ~~~~~~~LCD (2 mm)~~~~~~~~~ **********Diffuse( 1-2 mm)********** _______Support (3-5 mm)________ . . . . . ~3ft . . . . _________|--camera--|___________ ***Report: Blobs were present but faint. some degree of pressure was needed to register input. Also, due to the sturdiness of the box, we did not have to worry about the layers warping. The initial distance tested was 3 ft. We assume that if the distance was decreased to 1.6 feet, the blobs would be read perfectly as the lens we purchased agreed to this mathematically. Only major problem would be the exclusion of the protective layer, yet the Endlighten fared to be unexpectedly durable so long as we occasionally wiped it down. I would recommend this setup. 3. Creative setup: This is my personal favorite: =======IR( 8 mm)======== ~~~~~~~LCD (2 mm)~~~~~~~~~ _______Support (3-5 mm)________ ~1-2 ft _________|--camera--|___________ **Report: Perfect blobs read. Additionally, decreasing the size from 3 ft to 1.6 ft would only make it better (allowing for us to place a protective layer). The downside is that since the diffuse layer has been removed, the transparency increases. We sacrifice transparency for perfect detection and virtually no ghosting. The transparency is not bad when the is no ambient light ( it is non intrusive). If the user wishes to use the table in an area with ambient light, this setup is not recommended as they will not see the screen performing at maximum quality. If the user is creative, they can show off the guts of the system and make it very presentable. You can attempt this: -------Protective (3 mm)---------=======IR( 8 or less mm)== ~~~~~~~LCD (2 mm)~~~~~~~~~ _______Support (3 mm)________ . ~ 1-2 ft . _________|--camera--|___________ The above is the example of the setup that we are moving toward at the moment for experimentation. 4. Setup that needs more exploring: =======IR( 8-10 or less mm)== ~~~~~~~LCD (2 mm)~~~~~~~~~ . ~ 1-2 ft . _________|--camera--|___________ **Report: Not recommended unless a support layer is added (LCDs are very fragile), but it is an interesting setup. received perfect blobs, no ghosting, yet great deal of transparency. Perhaps adding a layer of support and a thin diffuse layer will work. III. Comments
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A. The diffuser sheet we used was the thicker one that is packaged with the LCD as my teammate accidentally threw away the smaller ones. I am fairly certain that the thinner sheets would have worked best to reduce transparency in the case of the setups we built without diffuse layers. B. I highly encourage the builder to read through other projects accomplished on the NUI group forums and formulate a design plan before starting the project. C. I did not feel that I needed to thoroughly explain the re-assembly for the LCD panel onto the box. All that you have to do is place it down on top of your support layer and reconnect the appropriate FFC to the sockets on the T-con Board. It is important that you connect them to the sockets they correspond to. Also, make sure the sockets are clean and that the FFC are in correctly. If you place them backwards or incorrectly, you may see a column of dead pixels. This is nothing to be too alarmed about as you only need to fix the connection.
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File Downloads
Multi-Touch_Technologies_v1.01.pdf (2 MB) [NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'Multi-Touch_Technologies_v1.01.pdf']
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Step 13: CCV, Touch Injector and the Cleye + CCV tests (Warez)
Now that we chose an OS, let's talk about what we need to get things working for us. Keep in mind that for our setup, we decided to go for a Windows 8 setup as it was freely available to us as a donation from our software guy and since it was also the easiest for him to develop for under the time we had set out for the project. This is the warez you will need to make touch work: I. CCV: CCV stands for Community Core Vision, the open-source and NUI group-developed tracking software at the basis for any multi-touch table you will find to be built in the NUI group forums. It comes with its own handy interface that luckily does not change too much in between version revision. I believe the CCV distro we are currently in is 1.5--this is the one we used since it has documentation and support for multi-camera setups. There is a mod in the NUI forums for 1.4 that allows it to accept multicamera setups. The more cameras, the faster your table and the smaller you can build it. I've explained in a very layman's terms how this program works in the Understanding Software section. There are various replacements to this program, although I do not recommend going that route as the NUI forums specifically highlight CCV over all other programs. The interface can be quite confusing to deal with. Seth Sandler, a contributor to the NUI group has posted a blog with a great description of the interface and how to navigate it here . Try to read through his site and discover more on the warez needed. I believe his is optimized for a Windows 7-based MT Mini--but the practicality is still essentially the same. Other useful links for you: CCV source Code: http://nuicode.com/projects/tbeta/repository Sandler's blog also contains links to the downloads for Linux and Mac. CCV 1.5 download from NUI: http://nuigroup.com/forums/viewthread/13330/ How to configure CLeye to CCV 1.5: http://nuigroup.com/forums/viewthread/14464/ If you choose to go with 1.4, another user has made a blog detailing installation very clearly here. Changing the resolution and FPS requires you to edit the XML files as administrator. *Make sure that the Blobs are perfect and perform as desired before moving onto calibration. II. CLeye: The Code Laboratories SDK for the PS3 eye. It comes with a variety of drivers and tools to sync and configure the PS3 eye to your setup via the computer. If you are working with CCV 1.5, I recommend downloading this first and making sure that your input can be read through this program. The graphical interface should display the capture of your blobs as you touch the table. Once you've got this done, you can proceed to CCV capture. There is a problem with registration regarding the CLeye though. The SDK requires that you buy a license for ~$35 in order to get the software to work. Luckily, there are a couple of ways to circumvent this; however, you will be making things harder for yourself as the process requires the handling and manipulation of DLL files. This could potentially mess up your software setup and force you to have to re-install everything all over again many times. You can find the drivers for the CLeye to be detailed on the main CCV 1.5 forum post given in the CCV section or here , and here is the CLeye site . III. Touch Injector: Since we're on Windows 8, we have to find a replacement for MT Vista that will work as a service for your inputs. For this, we use Touch Injector. This was also developed in the NUI group and handles very well. It also has quite a bit of documentation and there are tons of forum posts on debugging and troubleshooting. Useful links: Touch Injector Download: http://nuigroup.com/forums/viewthread/14448/ Project done with useful info on CLeye dlls and Touch Injector config: http://nuigroup.com/forums/viewthread/14648/ links for a TUIO mouse driver that may replace Touch injector: http://nuigroup.com/forums/viewthread/14725/ --this will convert touch events into Windows touch events. Forum with valuable info regarding config: http://nuigroup.com/S=e0ec20a79ebf6558e095464ab473... Refer here for TUIO software * A note of Clarity: TUIO is a protocol used for describing the position and such of the blobs. If you can remember my explanation of CCV in the past sections, you will realize that CCV outputs TUIO messages regarding your inputs. TUIO stands for Tangible User Interface Protocol. Expanding on this, we need an application that will take those messages as an input and convert them to touch. Touch Injector takes these messages and converts them to native touch. But what if you wanted to go the other way and take native touch and convert it to TUIO? Refer to this thread .
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Related Instructables
How To Build An Optical Multitouch Setup: FTIR, Rear DI, LLP, DSI, LED-LP (VIDEO TUTORIALS) by PeauProductions
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