Playsurface : An affordable touchscreen table that redefines surface computing

The touch interface technology is hardy futuristic at this point in time, and even multi touch hardware devices like iPhone are no longer a big deal. It was five years back when Microsoft envisioned a coffee table machine, the first of its kind to feature surface computing. They planned to have these tables in every household, but a price tag of $8000 never justified their being. Recently, a project by the name Playsurface was launched on Kickstarter, and it claims to bring touch screen computing into homes at an affordable price of $1750.

Playsurface touchscreen

The concept of Playsurface has been developed by Len White and Chris Templeman from Templeman Automation. According to them, the idea behind this creation is to redefine gaming, browsing, and the use of other applications through the medium of hackable, multi use touch computing platform.

Picture Gallery

Playsurface touchscreen

A multi touch computing table

At the pledged price of $1750, the Playsurface kit will offer a Windows computer, a transparent touch screen, a short throw 1280 by 800 pixel DLP projector. A self assembled wooden enclosure will hold all the aforementioned. An infrared LED strip will aid input recognition and ‘Blob Board,’ considered to the hardware processor, will detect the touch. It will be connected to a computer via USB. The Blob Board alone will cost $350. The remaining $1400 will be divided between other components and a matching table for the installation.

Although intriguing, the concept is still not fully fledged. There many intricacies that the developers will hopefully work on as they go along. There are certain hardware limitations like its resolution and 30FPS, which need improvement. Even the video quality, although not bad, needs to be updated. But, given its price, all these limitations do stand justified and hopefully before it is ready for prime time, its creators will make the required improvements.

Via: Kickstarter/ Engadget