Thermal Camera Turns Many Things Into Interactive Surfaces

With the advent and introduction of interactive technology, our smartphones, laptops, etc… would just not be the only source. Our interaction with smartphones, laptops, tablets, etc… is quite evident and known to one and all. But our voice, gesture and touch are yet to be emerged on other wearable gadgets like head worn computers that do not possess any touch screen or mouse. The time has shifted from visual to interactive. As time is changing by, the expectations of people is also rising with it. Metaio, the augmented reality company is known for developing devices and technological offerings for enabling visual interactive solutions. By reflecting interactive technology on any desirable surface, the viewers can access the live view of real and physical world. With Metaio’s interactive solutions, users can easily interact with any object irrespective of it being books, walls, toys, etc… The recent offering by Metaio is thermal camera. The thermal camera possesses the quality of converting several objects into interactive surfaces. Metaio’s thermal camera has a thermal touch that easily tracks the residual heat by simply touching it with other camera. This in turn captures visible light for detecting the place of the object that is being touched. Metaio’s software maps the object in three different dimensions. In order to make this technology functional, Metaio mixes two different types of cameras together. The first one is thermal camera which aids in detecting this thermal heat with just a touch. On the other hand, the other camera aids in detecting the location of object. The device is named as Optris PI 200. Daniel Kurz heads Metaio’s advanced technologies group. With an optimistic mindset, Daniel believes that the thermal camera technology would be able to get into wearable computers, smartphones and tablets in future. Daniel revealed that thermal touch is capable of performing in any type of weather. Metaio’s thermal touch is capable of functioning of any type of service except metal. Since metal disposes and emits heat, it is not viable to place thermal touch gadgets on metal surfaces. Daniel also revealed that the upcoming information would be revealed in a paper that would be presented at International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented reality in September this year. Since there are several technological issues, it is essential to fix them before revealing the next set of information in September. Currently Metaio is striving hard to reduce Thermal touch’s latency. Daniel addressed about the technological that the touch of thermal technology responds in bits and pieces. It does not respond all the time till it is placed on an interactive surface. The prototype needs to be worked upon for fixing these problems. Currently it only identifies surfaces that are flat or three dimensional.