Sound Turns Surfaces Into Touchscreens (VIDEO)

Scientists in South Korea have devised a method to use sound to locate touch on a surface, which could allow any surface to function as a touchscreen.

AsianScientist (Jan. 11, 2019) – A research group in South Korea has developed a touch sound localization technology that could turn objects like furniture and mirrors into touch input tools. They presented their method at ACM SenSys, a conference in the field of mobile computing and sensing.

Futuristic movies often feature touchscreens that appear on diverse surfaces, from tables to walls and even mirrors. For such inventions to exist, surfaces need to be able to locate a user’s touch, which remains an engineering challenge.

To accurately localize touch on surfaces, scientists led by Assistant Professor Kim Hyosu Kim at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in South Korea are relying on the sounds generated when a person’s finger makes contact with solid surfaces.

Sound experiences a dispersion phenomenon on solid surfaces, giving rise to different frequency components that travel at different speeds. Based on this phenomenon, the team observed that the time difference of arrival between frequency components increases in proportion to the sound transmission distance, and this linear relationship is not affected by the variations of surrounding environments. Hence, touch can be located by sound even in a noisy setting.

Using their system, the researchers were able to accurately localize touch on a 17-inch surface, with an average localization error that was lower than 0.4 cm. This level of precision was maintained even when the system was applied to a variety of objects such as wooden desks, glass mirrors and acrylic boards.

“This is a novel touch interface technology that creates a touch input system just by installing three to four microphones,” said Professor Shin Insik of KAIST who helped develop the technology.

The researchers envision a future where users can turn surrounding tables or walls into virtual keyboards and write lengthy emails much more conveniently, using only the built-in microphone on their smartphones or tablets.



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Source: Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.
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