AquaTop Turns Water Into A Touch-Screen Display

AquaTop Turns Water Into A Touch-Screen Display

AquaTop, the new technology, designed by Yasushi Matoba from Tokyo’s University of Electro-Communication, really pushes the limits of interactive surfaces. A Kinect camera, a projector, some waterproofed speakers, half a year of coding and an enormous amount of ingenuity is all that Yasushi Matoba used.

AquaTop display is a projection system that uses white water as a screen surface. This system allows the user’s limbs to freely move through, under and over the projection surface.

The main body of the display is a 600mm x 900mm x 250mm square plastic water tank. A Microsoft Kinect depth camera is mounted above the square water tank together with a projector. Waterproof speaker is attached to the bottom of the square water tank. These three components are connected with a master control PC.

AquaTop's display is a 600mm x 900mm x 250mm square plastic water tank with a Kinect depth camera, a projector, Waterproof speaker, all connected with a master control PC

AquaTop works by projecting images onto the surface of the water. Mixed with bath salts, the water becomes milky-white and provides better contrast as a projection surface. The opaque water also reflects the infrared light emitted by a Kinect depth camera, which is responsible for tracking the position of multiple fingers – whether you hold them above the water, touch the surface from above or poke them out from beneath the surface. Both the Kinect camera and the projector are connected to a single PC.

"This type of interaction is not capable with current impenetrable, rigid body, flat surfaces," say the researchers, who just demonstrated their technology at the Siggraph computer graphics conference in Anaheim, Calif.


This configuration allows for several innovative interaction modes, impossible to achieve with standard displays, such as scooping up a handful of water with a video thumbnail projected on its surface and then dropping the thumbnail over a video player area to start the video in full screen (or full bath) mode.

Another way to move images and videos is to create waves and have the multimedia assets carried away with the flow. Unwanted images may be removed from the surface by pinching them with three fingers protruding from beneath the water surface and then pulling them under. Plus you can also drag images with one finger and enlarge them with two.

 To move images and videos with the AquaTop is to create waves

The prototype setup, created by a team of engineers from Tokyo's University of Electro-Communications, projects games, movies, and photos onto a liquid surface made cloudy with an opaque powder. The gaming experience is further enhanced by a waterproofed speaker fitted to the bottom of a 23 x 35 x 10-inch (60 x 90 x 25-cm) water tank.

Japanese engineer Yasushi Matoba interacts with his aquatic display by protruding his fingers from underneath the surface

Whenever there is a need for some visual fireworks, the speaker is turned on. As it starts producing sound at the 50Hz frequency, the water shoots upwards in a fountain accompanied by lights from integrated LEDs.

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Write by: RC - Saturday, August 3, 2013

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