Amanda Ghassaei – creator of the Glitchbox and Vocal Effect Box – recently published a detailed list of build instructions for an Atmel-based (Duemilanova or Uno), Arduino-powered infrared touchscreen/coffee-table interface.
According to Zoe Romano of the official Arduino blog, Ghassaei has been using the multitouch platform to control various music and graphics applications on her PC.
So, how does the platform work?
“The touchscreen uses infrared (IR) sensing to detect fingers and other objects on the screen, [while] an IR laser at each corner shines IR light across the surface of the screen,” Ghassaei explained.
“When a finger or other object touches the surface, it causes the IR light to scatter in many directions. Some of this light is directed down into the screen, towards an array of 64 IR sensors. By scanning through the sensors, you can determine the x and y position of the touch event(s) and use this to control a variety of apps.”
Interested in learning more about the Arduino-powered multitouch music controller? You can check out the project’s Instructables page here.
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