computer science

Virtual touch screen

Virtual touch screen is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Virtual touch screen rather than just read about it. In short: A virtual touch screen (VTS) is a user interface system that augments virtual objects into reality either through a projector or optical display using sensors to track a person's interaction with the object. For instance, using a display and a rear projector system a person could create images that look three-dimensional and appear to float in midair.

Key takeaways

Virtual touch screen belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Virtual touch screen to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Virtual touch screen from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A virtual touch screen (VTS) is a user interface system that augments virtual objects into reality either through a projector or optical display using sensors to track a person's interaction with the object. For instance, using a display and a rear projector system a person could create images that look three-dimensional and appear to float in midair. Some systems utilize an optical head-mounted display to augment the virtual objects onto the transparent display utilizing sensors to determine visual and physical interactions with the virtual objects projected.

History 2010, Displair introduced its first commercial "screenless" 3D virtual multi-touch display, consisting of cold stable air flow containing particles of water produced by a cavitation method. Late 2010, Microsoft released the Kinect, a first of a kind commercially available and affordable virtual touch screen sensor that could track a person's movement and augment their interactions with objects rendered in a television set. 2015, Microsoft unveiled the Hololens, an optical head-mounted display utilizing the Windows Holographic platform. Virtual objects are displayed through the optical head-mounted to render the Windows 10 system onto the visible environment of the user.

Development During a 2009 study at the Korea Electronics Technology Institute, a virtual touch screen system was built using the touch point tracking technique based on a time of flight camera with a Kalman filter. To address the widespread problem in conventional virtual touch screen systems (i.e. responding sensitively to even the slightest hand movement and failing to recognize the touch point accurately), the study had applied the Kalman filter tracking technique to predict and track the touch point consecutively. Being forecast and recognized, the predicted touch point was bound to exist all the time, but an abrupt movement of touch point was likely to be recognized only insensitively. A commercial version based on this technology was never implemented.

Usage Currently, virtual touch screens (VTS) are used primarily for entertainment and research purposes. A popular virtual touch screen system is the Kinect system made commercially available by Microsoft. The Kinect system is primarily used for consumer entertainment such as playing games and using the menus found on the Xbox system. However, in recent years the Kinect has been used for research projects in the field of robotics and 3-D interactions outside of the field of games such as browsing the web, and medical practices. There is a potential for the technology where the 3D visualization and physical interaction with the objects is necessary, such as teaching students introductory calculus. Virtual touch screen technology can also be applied to turn non-touch displays into interactive, touch-capable surfaces using a Kinect sensor in combination with a projector. This type of application allows virtual touch technology to enhance personal display usage as well as better communication and presentation of data to be used in education or business settings.

In medical practices, virtual touch interaction has been applied to allow users to view and manipulate digital data such as 3D images used in medical scans, allowing medical staff to interact with the data without any physical contact, thus avoiding the need for re-sterilization. Additionally, Microsoft's Kinect sensor has also employed the use of virtual touch screen technology to help stroke patients recover and improve motor function in their limbs through a game-like system involving interpretation of gestures combined with adjustable difficulty levels based on the user's performance.

Human factors and ergonomics One of the key issues with virtual environments that utilize touch are the haptics. For example, utilizing virtual touch screen for medical training could cut costs down for training medical staff for touch delicate operations such as surgery. However, the haptics of such training does not provide sufficient physical touch feedback necessary for a virtually trained practitioner to perform a real surgery. Incorporating sufficient haptic feedback to virtual touch screen interactions is an active area of research.

See also Haptic technology Head-mounted display Kinect Touchscreen Virtual reality Windows Holographic

Notes

References

External links Microsoft's HoloLens project Official website for Xbox + Kinect Official website for Kinect for Windows

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Virtual touch screen

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Virtual touch screen claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Virtual touch screen before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Virtual touch screen ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Virtual touch screen

In research: Virtual touch screen appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Virtual touch screen in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Virtual touch screen is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 3D imaging, Augmented reality, Game controllers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Virtual touch screen outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Virtual touch screen in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Virtual touch screen means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Virtual touch screen out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Virtual touch screen in simple terms?

Why does Virtual touch screen matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Virtual touch screen?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Virtual touch screen.