Multi touch table achieves 3D effect using Kinect

Interactive tables aren't anything new, but what about one you could potentially build by yourself on the cheap? That's what one internet dweller has done, using a 2D projector, kinect unit, and four infrared lasers. The table appears to have a 3D holographic display, but it's a clever piece of trickery: the Kinect tracks the user's head in relation to the table, and the projector adjusts the image as necessary to give the illusion of a 3D space.

The projector is installed underneath the table, with the projected image reflected onto the surface of the table using a mirror. Four lasers are mounted at each corner of the table, and a camera mounted next to the projector captures the motion tracking of the users fingers. The software that goes along with the table allows different colored blocks and textures to be used, as well as position within the 3D space.

The table is reminiscent of Microsoft's Surface, which housed a 1080p 40-inch display capable of tracking 50 individual points simultaneously. The latest version of Surface also featured cameras embedded into each pixel for more accurate tracking, and was powered by a dual-core Athlon Athlon II X2 processor clocked at 2.9Ghz with a AMD HD 6750M GPU. It commanded a hefty price though: $7,600.

[via Hackaday]