FTIR “frustrated total internal reflection”

By Lilia Perez
After the experience with "Frontera" in which I used 2 firewire webcams and an Open Source application created by Arjan Scherpenisse and Robin Gareus to achieve the one touch motion tracking, I'm experimenting with other forms of multitouch screen interaction. The first one I'm looking into is FTIR, which is becoming very widely used. Great tutorials about how to make your own multitouch screen can be found online. I'm using one that I found while surfing this site:
http://www.nuigroup.com
I will soon post a direct link, but I don't have it right now.
Attached is a picture of the point of the process that I'm in now. Basically, I'm about to finish the screen, I've soldered and placed the leds and the resistors , I have the polished acrylic board, and I only have to put everything together and connect it to the software part. (I already tested it using the computer's internal connectors as a power source, and placing the camera under the glass).I will be making posts on the progress of this. I'm really looking forward to the results of this first approach to an alternative technique.
More to come...