A diagram of the Everywhere Displays projection system from IBM. Projectors, mounted in one or more parts of an ordinary room, project images of "touch screens" onto ordinary surfaces, such as tables, walls or the floor. Video cameras capture images of users touching various parts of the surfaces and send that information for interpretation by a computer.
An example of a business that could take advantage of such technology, says IBM Research's Claudio Pinhanez, is the METRO Future Store in Rheinberg, Germany. At a kiosk, shoppers enter the name of the particular wine they're interested in, and a spotlight appears on the floor in front of the chosen item. Pinhanez envisions making these spotlights into touch-input devices as described above.
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