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Massachusetts Institute of Technology

BiDi screen : depth and lighting aware interaction and display

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

In this thesis, I describe a new type of interactive display that supports both on-screen multi-touch interactions and off-screen hover-based gestures. This BiDirectional (BiDi) screen, capable of both image capture and display, is inspired by emerging LCDs that use embedded optical sensors to detect multiple points of direct contact. The key contribution of this thesis is to exploit the spatial light modulation capability of LCDs to allow dynamic mask-based scene capture without interfering with display functionality. A large-format image sensor is placed slightly behind the liquid crystal layer. By alternatly switching the liquid crystal between a display mode showing traditional graphics and a capture mode in which the backlight is disabled and a pinhole array or an equivalent tiled-broadband code is displayed, the BiDi Screen can recover multi-view orthographic imagery while functioning as a 2D display. The recovered imagery is used to passively estimate the depth of scene points from focus. I discuss the design and construction of a prototype to demonstrate these capabilities in two motivating applications: a hybrid touch plus gesture interaction and a light-gun mode for interacting with external light-emitting widgets. The working prototype simulates the large format light sensor with a camera and diffuser, supporting interaction up to 50 cm in front of a modified 20.1 inch LCD.

Degree

thesis:*
Department dc:contributor.department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. Program in Media Arts and Sciences.
Grantor dc:publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Year dc:date.issued
2009

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Hirsch, Matthew Waggener
Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
  • Henry Holtzman.

Subjects

dc:subject × 1

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.
Language dc:language.iso
eng

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Handle dc:identifier.uri
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/55261
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/55261

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
MIT
Base URL
dspace.mit.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Hirsch, Matthew Waggener. BiDi screen : depth and lighting aware interaction and display. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/55261