Innovative Production Machines and Systems Conference

Introduction

The vast majority of input interfaces are tangible (e.g., keyboards, mice,touch pads and touch screens). A common disadvantage with these devices is the presence of mechanical or electronic devices at the point of interaction with the interface (switches, potentiometers, sensitive layers, force resistive sensors, etc). This increases manufacturing costs, limits the interaction to predetermined points or surfaces, and is not feasible to applications e.g. outdoor, public spaces, street shop windows, critical home (e.g. in kitchen) and building environments, in industry noisy and disturbed applications. We present here a novel approach which suppresses the need for intrusive sensors or devices in the area of contact and interaction, in a framework of multimodal interfaces.

The Tai-Chi project is financed by the European FP6 IST program. The support of the European Commission is gratefully acknowledged.

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