Alternative hack for the Gesture Keyboard

-
Long time for this post too! eh. mugging for the exams is quite a shakle to breakaway from :-P The reason I am writing this post amid the tests is being overwhelmed by Rahul Motiyar's new multitouch monitor mount hack. The thoughts from the B'lore trip and the above work culminated :-P

I happened to visit and take a look around HPL India B'lore. The way gesture keyboard solves the problem of indic languges was sure eye catcher. Its a tablet with a Stylus input interface using which a computer newbie can type in Hindi almost with zero learning curve. A big boon over the present Hindi keyboards, which work fast- but only for a very specially trained people.


 The HPLab's Gesture Keyboard



A generic Hindi keyboard


The way it works makes Devnagari entry a breeze. I happened to think about some extensions that could be done with this interface. "Why not make a simple computer screen work like a gesture keyboard with almost zero hardware mods"
The point is to learn from the Optical setups that the wonderful open source community is using today. A camera mounted over a infrared laser lit LCD can easily track the touch points- add to it, it can work a multitouch input panel too.

  • Mount a modified PS3 eye to track infrared over the monitor. Optionally, a wiimote can also be used(  tried Wiimote's IR tracking, works well for small IDs)

  • Write an GTK/WPM Module similar to Gesture Keyboard that would popup as soon as Hindi typing method is invoked




  • Align the Infrared Lasers right over the acrylic sheet such that a light plane parallel to the screen is generated.


  • The LLP mount when fitted over the LCD will track multiple IR points with almost zero force




  •  Gestures are parsed accordingly using a touch tracker( OpenCV, Touchlib) , and overlapping keyboard is calibrated.

Total Cost for the hack=Rs 500 for generic webcam+ Rs 1000 for two IR Laser modules.










Comments

  1. SrishtiTuesday, January 26, 2010 at 12:10:00 AM GMT+5:30

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. SrishtiTuesday, January 26, 2010 at 12:13:00 AM GMT+5:30

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. SrishtiTuesday, January 26, 2010 at 1:04:00 AM GMT+5:30

    great keyboard design..it'll give a kinda relief from the burdensome unicode convertors!!definitely a gud news fr d Hindi Literature lovers.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NZM-SEC Superfast express that took my '35 hours'

-
Image
I usually cover my long distance travels by air- for it saves time, and is less tiring (and was affordable in the past).  Call it naivety or my callous attitude, but I completely forgot the fact that its hard to fetch a cheap ticket when your travel plans are made just a day in advance. Owing to recent price inflations and my last minute plans I decided to cover my return journey from Delhi to Hyderabad via train. The decision was taken a day before I wanted to return, i.e. 19th May, high time when there are summer holidays in India. The night before I stood in the train line, with my father and brother, to fetch tatkal tickets. The process is hard- the HTTP fetch request by IRCTC works like a lucky draw). Hence, my attempt ended up futile.  So I decided I'll jump on the train, painful decision-no tickets, no seats, just that. The beginning. I left my home at 7PM. Reached Kshitij's place. Had dinner there- met Surbhi, Sonia aunty and uncle there. Kshitij's mo...
Read more

Google SoC: I am in :)

-
After falcon4ever and tito's hint I was keeping my fingers crossed. Phew ! at 12:30 AM IST 22 April dot, the results for Google Summer of Code -2009 were announced. Sudhanshu broke me the news on call, I was in ! It was one of the best moments of my life- the feeling within was a mix of several emotions- The mood was upbeat, yet I had in mind the upcoming summer ahead. Being selected is just the beginning, the real groundwork starts now. I proposed my own idea " A Multitouch extension Module for Google SketchUp" . Its going to be mentored by Pawel Solyga . I hope to make it something that Google SketchUp lovers would love to see on their Multitouch tables. Its a challenge ahead , and I am looking forward to it. So summer 2009 - Lotsa hacking and Ruby Programming. As many as three students were selected from my college. Shreekant and Abhinav made it to Sahana and XIPH respectively. And yeah Mangalore ! Sharath Patali for the good NUIPaint was also in. Great to see a good ...
Read more