AquaTop: A Gaming Touch Display That Looks Like Demon Possessed Water

AquaTop_touch_displayAre you ready to make a utility sink sized pool of water the location of your next living room game console? This demonstration is appealing, but maybe not ready for widespread adoption. AquaTop is an interactive display that combines water, a projector, and a depth camera.

The water has bath salts added to it which turn it a milky white. This does double duty, making it a reasonably reflective surface for the projector, and hiding your hands when below the surface. The video below shows several different games being played. But the most compelling demonstration involves individual finger tracking when your digits break the surface of the water (show on the right above).

There is also a novel feedback system. The researchers hacked some speakers so they could be submerged in the tank, adding a large speaker with LEDs on it in the same manner. When fed a 50 Hz signal they make the surface of the pool dance.

9 thoughts on “AquaTop: A Gaming Touch Display That Looks Like Demon Possessed Water

  1. “…maybe not ready for widespread adoption.”
    Maybe you are underestimating the power of consumerism here in ‘Merica.

    Truly, this is awesome; 7:30 – 7:40 is what it is all about!

  2. Check out the Blue Man Group DVD “The Complex Rock Tour”. There are two vertically oriented drums on both sides of the stage. There are bright (changing) color lights shining up through the clear drum skins and a layer of water contained on top of them. An incredible spike of brightly colored water shoots up high into the air each time the drum is struck, perfectly synchronized to the beat, of course. Very simple, no electronic circuitry, very striking visual/audio effect. Of course, a bit messy!

  3. Please tell me that’s actual bath salts that you can buy at reputable retail stores, and not “bath salts”, the nickname for synthetic cathinones, which have effects similar to cocaine or methamphetamine.

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