The current "accepted" setup for a multi-touch display involves a sheet of acrylic (ie. thick plastic) a computer with webcam (that can "see" infrared), a standard LCD projector and an array of IR-LED's mounted around the acrylic. There's some other bits as well but the point is that all this kit takes a bit of cash to spend and one item in particular (the projector) is pretty damn pricey to justify doing this at home.

So I'm hoping to have a bash at this multi-touch thing by using a laptop and a webcam instead of a pc / projector / webcam.... Can't be done?.... heh, well the experiments I've done to date say otherwise. True it's not "simple" but it is doable and if you've already got a laptop that works, but you don't need, or can get one off Ebay for less than a projector then your more than half way to making the thing. Most of this is in my head (hey that's the best place!) at the moment but I've done some experiments with some of the equipment required and so far they have proved 100% ok. All that's left is to tackle some of the other bits and then I'll post up how you do it.

The last "big" component that I need to work on is the Acrylic / IR Led setup. I've seen loads of other blogs / sites on the net from others who have done it so have a pretty good idea what I need and it looks like I can do it for around £50 (which is OK).