A CMOS camera-based man-machine input device for large-format interactive displays

Human-computer interaction using large-format displays is an active area of research that focuses on how humans can better work with computers or other machines. In order for this to happen, there must be an enabling technology that creates the interface between man and machine. Touch capabilities in a large-format display would be advantageous as a large display area is informationally dense and touch provides a natural, life-size interface to that information. This paper describes a new enabling technology in the form of a camera-based man-machine input device which uses smart cameras to analyze a scene directly in front of a large-format computer display. The analysis determines where a user has touched the display, and then treats that information as a mouse click, thereby controlling the computer. Significant technological problems have been overcome to make the system robust enough for commercialization. The paper also describes camera-based system architecture and presents some interesting advantages as well as new capabilities. The technology is ideally suited to large-format computer displays, thus creating a very natural interface with familiar usage paradigms for human-computer interaction.