Mud Tub: A Tactile Computer Interface

mud

[Tom Gerhardt] has made this very interesting mud interface for a computer.  Follow the link to see a video of it in action. It appears as though he’s using a laser grid of some kind to establish elevation. We might be way off on that though, there aren’t any details on the construction. He does mention that it is an open source hardware and software project, so maybe the details are available on request. In the video you can see it running as a projection surface where people are interacting with items directly on the mud. You can also see it being used as an external input device. People play Tetris using it in that example.

UPDATE: [Moon] reports from the ITP show that the tub has a 16×12 grid of generic pressurs sensors on the bottom. These feed into a MacBook Pro which is projecting on the surface. Despite the sparse grid, [Tom] says he gets good resolution by interpolating between sensors; it can detect a resting hand pivoting on the surface.

12 thoughts on “Mud Tub: A Tactile Computer Interface

  1. It could be cool, if they could stop the video from buffering every 5 seconds even on a 15MB connection. I still have no idea what this thing is or does, and now because of the trouble, i never will.

  2. Its a projector like one you would see at a mall that lets kids kick the soccer ball around. There is no complex grid this is something you could use on a blank wall just as easily, the mud just gives you something to touch.

  3. wow, this is a rather interesting concept.

    t’is a little on the messy side though.
    it could probably be exchanged for one of those non-stick goo’s for those who wouldn’t want to get mud on them.

    there was a similar idea i saw a video of a while back using the old webcam / multitouch screen idea.
    it had a liquid inside a plastic bag.

  4. It was an idea, and it works. That is all that matters, at least they tried. So it may not have a real world usage, but it is still cool. Sod the video, il gladly wait a few seconds to watch stuff like this, stop being anal.

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