World's largest touchscreen goes live

The 10m-long touchscreen, at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands, can handle more than 100 interactions at the same time, and is being used for geographic research

By Tim Ferguson, Contributor Feb. 18, 2011 at 3:58 a.m. PT

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World's largest touchscreen

This is the University of Groningen's Reality Touch Theatre, which the Dutch institution describes as the biggest touchscreen interface in the world.

The university has converted its existing cylindrical 3D theatre into a 10m-long touchscreen that can detect more than 100 touch interactions at any one time.

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Behind the world's largest touchscreen

The touchscreen uses diffuse illumination in which a layer of material on the front of the screen is used to reflect infrared light.

There are six optical motion-capture and motion-tracking cameras and 16 infrared illuminators — with a total of more than 1,000 infrared LEDs — located behind the screen.

The cameras are unable to see through the diffuse layer, and when people touch the front of the screen, the infrared light reflected back shows the computer system where the screen is being touched.

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Touchscreen presentation

The facility is being used by academics researching geographic information systems that capture, analyse and present data using techniques such as cartography, statistical analysis and database technology.

For more on this ZDNet UK-selected story, see Photos: World's largest touchscreen powers up on silicon.com.

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