Review on Methods in Touch Tracking for Tabletop Projections

Abstract

Interactive tabletop projections overlay an interface into the spatial environment and enable new and frameless fields of interaction. The continually evolving technology has potential in several application areas. In contrast to traditional invasive technology setups such as displays, capacitive foils, or infrared grids, projected systems do not require any construction of the interaction surface. This overview intends to present the current state of the art in touch tracking methods for tabletop projections and identify the potential of such environments as a new generation of interfaces for current and future research in this emerging field. It reviews selected novel methods for touch input, using sensors, on a flat surface projection, including a timeline of selected recent work, and a summary showing the characteristics, primary strengths, and drawbacks. Methods using machine learning are promising and linked to research in mid-air fingertip recognition, as implementations using depth and infrared sensors are more sophisticated in terms of fingertip recognition and accuracy.