A project funded by Ignite (Formerly National ICT R&D Fund) under National Grassroots ICT Research Initiative (NGIRI) named as “Multi-touch Interactive Table Top” developed under the supervision of Dr. Khawar Khurshid got first prize in the Digital Systems Category at COMPPEC held in Department of Computer Engineering, College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (CEME) on 27th-28th June, 2012

The aim of this project was to develop an interface that uses human gestures and motions to interact with the computer. A framework is developed that successfully demonstrates the ease of use of such an interface. A table top is designed and developed whose surface responds to a variety of gestures and touch motions involving multiple touch points instead of the usual mouse motion and clicks. Microsoft offers a similar surface at a cost of PKR 1.5 Million as opposed to the one indigenously developed at NUST with 1/10th of the cost.

Multiple applications are developed to demonstrate the intuitive interface, two of which are described below.

Medi-Touch: This application realizes a feasible way for the radiologists and medical experts to view, analyze, and process the volumetric medical images in 3D. The ability to view the cross sectional slices of the (CT/MRI/PET) scans on a table top with the ability to easily segment and zoom the area of interest provides much better visualization quality as well as higher anatomical details for accurate diagnosis. The application can enhance, segment, and render the data in 3D as well as it provides the capability to take notes right there on the touch surface and save for later reference.

Battlefield: Strategy/war planning and training for military can be better demonstrated with the use of a multi-touch interactive table top. Incorporated with the actual ultra high resolution Google maps and the real-time weather conditions overlay, this system can provide realistic scenarios and landscape for the planning of war strategy. Private security firms can also adapt to this system to detail the security personnel about different scenarios and course of action at any given area. Different objects can be placed onto the map and can be animated to analyze the strategy over time. Different strategies can be complied with corresponding notes and saved on the system.