Boffin creates a touch screen out of anything

BOFFINS AT THE CHIP GIANT Intel have come up with a novel way of turning anything into a computer touchscreen.

Instead of sending a signal to a piece of glass that gets covered with sticky finger prints, the device uses a camera and an algorithm to broadcast a screen onto any surface.

It does not matter if the surface is cluttered or uneven - if you can see it, it can be used to connect with your computer.

Beverly Harrison, a senior research scientist at Intel told Wired that the project uses real-time 3D object recognition to build a model of almost anything that's placed on the counter and offers a virtual, touchscreen-based menu.

Harrison said that the computer builds a model of the colour, shape, texture of the objects in real time and runs it against a database to identify it.

She said that one day in the future a living room wall could morph into a touchscreen when you put a finger on it, and show a menu of music, video to choose from. µ