Johnny Lee's invention: amazing
But... erm... surely it must be able to create something much simpler?
(But with less accuracy)
Have a look at
www.e-beam.comThis is a nice cost effective contraption
It relies on 2 beams beamed at right angles and hey presto you can turn ANY surface into a touchscreen surface
It suffers from the rubbish whiteboard touchscreen syndrome: you have to use their software + 4 coloured pens (from what I can see).
I thought it would be really easy to have 2 sides
2 sides, one vertical and one horizontal
With both emitting infrared beams
When someone disturbs the somewhere inside, the exact location can be worked out
Add a little coding and you can have this interaction be the mouse
And: you have a touchscreen surface
See the attached image for what I meanSurely someone must have tried this?
OK... so maybe the accuracy of the touchscreen won't be the same, it might be something like 100dpi
BUT: that would be perfectly OK if you're not planning on writing with the application and using as a windows interface
AND instead if you plan to build applications that have big buttons
For example for building software for young kids to interact with
Or may the outside of shop windows where the user will be using their fingers to press onto the window
The great thing is the 2 sides could be discretely hidden away and the user wouldn't see this
Does anyone understand what I'm talking about!!?
Please reply!

Thanks.
OM