A $150 app pairs up with Kinect and a projector to turn any surface into a touchscreen

For the technology to work, a projector will be mirroring an image on a surface of your choice, while a Kinect sensor will be tracking your movements allowing you to interact with the screen in a similar fashion to how you use your current tablet or smartphone. Moreover, thanks to 3D mapping, the Kinect system can actually tell when you're 'clicking' the image, and when you're simply hovering. This allows for the use of multi-touch gestures that you're familiar with, like scrolling, pinching to zoom or simply flipping through pages.

Of course, while the rather futuristic concept of touchscreens everywhere sure is appealing, it does seem like Ubi is downplaying the fact that while its product kills off the need for a monitor, the cost of the app, a projector and a Kinect still amounts to a not too affordable sum. What's more, we don't quite see how Ubi's proposed setup is more feasible, since they still have to deal with hardware that could possibly be harder to reach, but surely not impossible. Said otherwise, don't get too excited just yet – we might not be as close to interactive touchscreens on, say, bus stops, as Ubi would like us to think.



source: Ubi Interactive via CNET