April 10, 2013
The Baanto ShadowSense-based Interactivity Kit automatically detects a video wall’s size and configuration.
Christie has chosen Baanto International Ltd.’s ShadowSense technology for its Interactivity Kit. These field-installable kits simply attach around the display wall perimeter and plug into a computer USB port without any need for drivers.
According to Baanto, Windows 7 automatically recognizes the Interactivity Kit as a multi-touch device and no manual calibration is required. The Christie Interactivity Kit offers excellent performance with high touch accuracy and fast response times that support up to 18 touches on a large-format display, the company said.
ShadowSense technology is an extremely scalable new 2D multi-touch technology that is both responsive and accurate, at a cost that is highly competitive to that of other systems currently on the market. Akin to an electronic sundial, ShadowSense technology accurately tracks the position of a given object’s “shadow.” By determining the relative angle and other characteristics of the shadow cast by an object, the object’s position in space can be fixed, providing an exceptional and unique multi-touch experience.
“Many large-format touch technologies struggle with touch accuracy and response time, especially with multi-touch,” said Richard Heslett, senior product manager, business products, Christie, Cypress, Calif. “Typically you have to manually position and calibrate cameras, and install special drivers or software that must be running on the computer in order for the system to work.”
The Baanto ShadowSense-based Interactivity Kit solves this problem by automatically detecting the video wall’s size and configuration, and simply connecting to the computer’s USB port. When used with Windows 7, which offers native support for multi-touch, the Interactivity Kit is automatically recognized as a multi-touch device and is ready for use right away.
“Creating large, scalable multi-touch displays simply and quickly has not been possible until now. The Baanto designed Christie Interactivity Kit is an exciting technology, there is nothing else like it,” said Av Utukuri, CTO of Baanto, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. “With its high immunity to ambient lighting, including sunlight, the technology opens up lots of new opportunities for creating engaging, interactive displays that capture audience attention.”