Touch Screen Technology & Ventuz

[DaVince86]

Hi all,

I know this doesn't really have anything to do with Ventuz as such, but we're trying to research which hardware solution to go for and getting mixed views on the internet. So I was hoping someone could tell me out of personal experience what works best with Ventuz.

Infrared, Resistive or Capacitive? The screen needs to be between 36 and 42 inch in size.

Thanks!

Vincent

[squiggle]

I had this post queued up for some time (actually wanted to flesh it out a bit more), but this seems as good a time as any to post... maybe we could make this thread a general collection for experiences (the good and the bad) with touch screens / touch frames?

We've been building a fair number of interactive exhibits with Ventuz in the last two years. One of our biggest problems usually is the touch screen (or touch frame). So far I haven't seen one that I would heartily recommend to anyone without major caveats.

Usually we don't use prefabricated touch screens, but rather "roll our own" using LCD-Panes and adding APR(*)-Touch-Frames (from http://www.elotouch.de ). Mixed experiences... usually OK for dual touch, but problems with a few models (list of particularly troublesome model/driver-combos may follow, still doing research). I actually suspect some of the problems somewhere in the communication between the touch-driver, Windows and Ventuz... we've had cases where touches wold register with 100% reliability in "naked" Windows, but in Ventuz only about a third of touches would be registered (even after tweaking tap/tap'n'hold-thresholds).

We built one exhibit using http://www.visualplanet.biz capacitive "touchfoil"... not happy either. As before: more problems in Ventuz than plain Windows, also I don't like the quite visible pattern the foil adds to the monitor-pixel-grid.

By the way: one of the biggest problems with capacitive touch screens appears to be electrical interference, especially where multiple touch screens are in close vicinity... we recently created content for an exhibit at Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) where the contractor for the touch screens (luckily not us!) had to rip out four huge seamlessly integrated capacitive touch frames and replace them with IR touch frames (no more even surface, the IR screens need a ~5-10 mm high border for the IR transmitter/receivers).

In one case we built a semi-spherical true multi-touch screen using rear projection, an IR camera, IR Diodes, thermoformed acrylic glass and CCV (http://ccv.nuigroup.com/) -- so far the nicest and most reliable multi touch experience we created (unless the ambient light ist too much or you're using Ventuz < 3.06 in which case it goes kablooie on too many touch points ).

Colleagues of mine were very impressed recently at ICE/Amsterdam by a (demo) PSD-table from flatfrog (http://flatfrog.com/technology )... anyone out there with some real-world experience?

Thanks,
squiggle

P.S.: There is a quite comprehensive overview of different touch technologies (as of 2010) available for free from the Fraunhofer Institute (in german only, you'll have to submit a valid e-mail address):
http://www.hci.iao.fraunhofer.de/publik ... -touch.jsp

P.P.S.: I'd also like to hear from the Ventuz-crew... posts like the following are always welcome
http://inside.ventuz.com/2010/08/coming ... ultitouch/
http://inside.ventuz.com/2011/02/touch-wood/

(*)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touchscree ... ecognition

[DaVince86]

Thanks for the feedback. We're essentially a post production company, Ventuz and Touch Screens in general is a very new venture for our company. We only have one screen up and running so far and we have yet to test Ventuz on it. It is currently running Magic Info which really is more a signage solution and cannot give the user an interactive touch experience. The screen itself has a 3M Capacitive DST layer on it and works fine with Magic Info as the user can only press buttons. Once we've tested Ventuz in all of its complexity on it I will be able to provide some feedback.

We don't have a specific location yet, so in terms of the light coming into the room and other environment conditions I won't be able to say. But I can tell you that for our purposes we won't need marker support. It will probably be installed onto a wall or be fixed onto a stand, but it can also be a table with a frame to do the detection. Functionality takes precedence over aesthetics. Our only priority is to make the user experience as seamless as possible. But I agree, all those factors should be considered with every installation.

Thanks again!

Vincent