tbeta, cross-platform multitouch

tbeta is a new tool developed by the NUI Group Community. tbeta acts as an image processing layer to take in image data and output tracking data for multitouch applications. Whether FTIR or DI, scratch built multitouch systems generate IR video streams that need to be processed to find fingertips. tbeta can take this or any arbitrary video stream and run it through a series of filters to generate the touch data. This data is sent as OSC TUIO, a standard protocol for touch events. Along with the camera and input switcher, tbeta also aids in system calibration. I works on Windows, OSX, and Linux. Have a look at the getting started guide for a better idea of how it works.

[via CDM]

Comments [5]

tagged: cdm, linux, multitouch, nui, osc, OsX, tbeta, tuio, video, vimeo, windows

5 Responses to tbeta, cross-platform multitouch

pascal says:

November 28, 2008 at 5:18 pm

meh. the bad latency of touchlib actually got worse. that happens, when you use way too large trackers, send yourself UDP packets to a Java-server that converts it to XML which is then streamed to Flash, or whatever they do nowadays to waste these amazing 500msec…
that aside, easy access to lots of demos is cool, but when you really use it, go make your own integrated software. (it’s 50 lines of code at most, from image capture to a list of traces)
it’s easier to set up, and you can get just 1 frame (1/60secs) latency if you do it right (and when you use the system, you’ll notice soon, that low latency is way more important than high resolution or even very accurate tracking).

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Irishman says:

November 28, 2008 at 7:41 pm

That looks really sci-fi’esh, in a good way.

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Grovenstien says:

November 29, 2008 at 3:08 am

Been following this for about a year now and have built my own touch drafting table! Personally i find Touche much better as a tracker, also BBtouch, but then again i am on os x. Tbeta has been the long awaited swiss army knife of trackers for multiple platforms. But the first post is right Zero latency is of upmost importance more so than accuracy. Check out open frameworks if you want to produce a homebrew!

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murphy says:

November 29, 2008 at 11:32 am

Well, zero latency is impossible; there’s no such thing. Also, tbeta is much more efficient then touchlib, so the first poster must have been away from the touchlib scene for a while and not tested this new tbeta software. In tbeta, DSP is around 2-6 which means tracking speed between 166-500fps which is much higher than touchlib. 500ms wasted? Who said tbeta only supports flash? Not to mention, flash supports binary sockets, so this issue is null, if this integrated (which I believe it will be). There’s also many improvements in calibration and filters. If you’re judging latency by the video, it’s clear that tbeta isn’t the culprit of latency, but the webcam must be using lower fps (20-30). Any other tracker, touche, bbTouch, or “homebrew” will have the same results when using a low fps camera. If “zero latency”, which is something that is impossible, is more important than accuracy, then I’m scarred lol. I’d rather my touches touch the right parts of the screen and pick up my blobs than be fast and press wrong things on the screen and not pick up my fingers. Of course there’s flaws, but for a version 1, it’s much less flawed than other trackers I’ve seen.

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cme says:

November 29, 2008 at 1:29 pm

@pascal – The lag is not really caused by the software… but more-so the hardware limits such as projection delay and a 15 FPS camera compared to the 120 FPS a newer system supports see: http://nuigroup.com/forums/viewthread/2173/

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