The project we're working on now is a prototype high-tech school desk. The idea was proposed by Kendal Smith, a Chemistry teacher at our high school. The general concept is this: a desk in which the surface is a touch screen computer (à la Microsoft Surface) and the computer runs education-oriented software (distribution of learning materials, test taking, digital homework, etc.)
To accomplish the multitouch aspect we're using a method called FTIR Touch Sensing developed at NYU. In this method, a sheet of plexiglass is flooded with IR light. When your fingers make contact with the sheet the IR light is scattered and shined into an IR-sensing camera below. The image is used by the computer to determine the location of the touches.
Most DIY systems use a rear projector and a layer of silicone-coated drafting vellum above the plexiglass to project the image onto. The silicone also creates good contact between your finger and the surface. We are instead using a simple LCD to cut costs. This presents a few problems which we haven't yet solved, most notably a method for backlighting the display, and a material besides vellum to help with finger contact.
To accomplish the software aspect we will first be using Touchlib and Windows 7. The long-term goal is to use our own operating system known as Oceania which is a glorified Newspeak Programming Language virtual machine that will run education software and have built in support for multitouch. I'll let Ryan write the first post on the Oceania project.
You can see the progress we've made so far in the previous post on blobs. As we make more progress we'll keep you posted. Jason, Ryan, and I are working on this project.
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