TOUCHify:Bringing Pen-Based Touch Screen Functionality to Flat Panel Display Screens

Authors
Ihab Al Kabary, Marcel Büchler, Heiko Schuldt
Type
In Proceedings
Date
2013/6
Appears in
Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Society (i-Society 2013)
Location
Toronto, Canada
Publisher
IEEE
Abstract
The past years have seen a rapid proliferation of flat panel display (FPD) screens that are available in almost all households and that have almost completely displaced cathode ray tube screens. While these screens have a great potential for serving as unobtrusive user interaction devices, usually only a small portion of FPDs are built to incorporate touch screen functionality due to the cost it entails. Several attempts have been made to economically transform existing FPDs into touch-enabled screens using either fingers, pens or styluses. In this paper we present TOUCHify, a novel approach that uses a dynamic pixel pattern seamlessly integrated into an application’s output on display, together with a digital microscopic pen. The pen is able to detect the embedded pixel pattern which, in turn, allows the application to react to user interaction. This enables pen-based touch screen functionality on arbitrary FPDs. An evaluation of the TOUCHify prototype with a healthcare feedback form emulator in an ambient assisted living scenario shows the effectiveness of the approach.