From iPhone to multi-touch tables, the leap has now been made to a touch-sensitive floor. The researchers are presenting their work at a user interface conference in New York next month.
While multi-touch screens are becoming more and more commonplace, German researchers are now working on integrating this same technology into floors. Users would interact with the multi-touch floor by using their feet.
“When I walk across the floor with my shoes, I get a glowing, infrared imprint of my footprints,” explained Patrick Baudisch, head of the Human Computer Interaction group at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany.
“And from that we can reconstruct where people are, and what shoes people wear because the soles are recognizable.”
The Multitoe floor would be able to identify users based on their footprints
The demonstration model of the “Multitoe” floor is about the size of a coffee table and measures about one meter by a half meter, and is raised up off the ground. The floor itself is made of a thick piece of glass, topped with a black sheet of acrylic. A camera, built-in to the floor, points up towards the ceiling.
A smart floor could show the way
According to Johannes Schoening, from the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence in Saarbruecken, a touch sensitive floor could open up a whole range of possibilities.
image: kay herschelmann
image: kay herschelmann
image: kay herschelmann
image: kay herschelmann
“The main advantage is you can sense what’s going on, on the floor,” he said “But now you have to think about so what can you do with that information. So for example if you are in the supermarket, you can provide navigational instructions.”
A Multitoe floor could be used for large scale visual applications, like maps
Other examples could include a smart-floor in a museum or an airport that shows you the way – or even a dance club where you can interact with the visuals on the floor.
Previously, the Sustainable Dance Club company in the Netherlands created a floor that generates power when people walk, jump and dance on it. It’s fitted with LED lights that can change color, but these use as little energy as possible because generating power is the priority.
Eric van Duin, an engineer with Sustainable Dance Club, said his company is excited about the potential of an interactive floor like the Multitoe – just as long as it doesn’t use too much power.
“Our touch experience is very limited, so maybe it would be very interesting to combine these technologies to enhance our dance floor”, he said.
Author: Cinnamon Nippard
Editor: Cyrus Farivar
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