We've seen robots controlled with projector interfaces and laser-pointer interfaces, and now we can add tabletop interfaces to the list. My labmate, Hai Nguyen, pointed out the CRISTAL project from the Media Interaction Lab at the Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences. The CRYSTAL project is an interesting "smart home" technology that uses a tabletop interface (similar to Microsoft's Surface) and a ceiling-mounted camera to display and control household electronics such as lights, TVs, digital picture frames, and robots! To command the robot, the user "draws" the desired robot path on the tabletop computer using their finger. The robot then follows the route via optical tracking through the ceiling-mounted camera. Interesting interaction, and its always good to see robots become sufficiently ubiquitous that they're classified (and controlled) in the same manner as other home electronics. Check out a video of the interaction below.
I've isolated the robot-relevant portion of a CRISTAL video below.
At first look, it appears robot tracking is accomplished by way of an AR Toolkit tag seen through ceiling-mounted camera images, a pretty simple technique that could be easily replicated by hobby-hackers. If you're interested in the whole interaction, the entire video with audio narration is below (with more information on their website).
With Microsoft seriously examining tabletop computers (such as the Microsoft Surface pictured below), perhaps this sort of interaction will become more commonplace -- though I'd probably prefer a different touch-based input device, like a tablet PC or iPhone. Either way, cool project.
