Innovations in Screen Technologies

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This Austrian startup and university spinoff has a compelling technology sure to stretch the imagination of display and interaction engineers.

Debuting in the US at the InfoComm show later this month, isiQiri (pronounced eye-see-keer-ee) brings its patented Q-foil technology to bear in the Q-Screen. Based on thin-film optical-sensing technologies coupled with triangulation-oriented software, the Q-foil enables large screen interactivity with laser pointers or user touch.

The company's website says that the Q-Screen is a large-area position sensitive light detector composed of arrays of standard-sized sensors of 85 cm x 61 cm (3.3" x 2.4") that can precisely detect the position and path of lasers pointed at the screen. Also, the screen technology can be integrated with light sources so that objects (like users' fingers) penetrating a plane can be used to create a large screen touch overlay.

In other words, Q-Screen converts normal projected surfaces into multitouch displays. Flexible and light, I see this class of thin film technologies the future of multi-touch technologies: scaling what is essentially 'the iPhone experience' to larger-scale venues and applications. The Q-foil can be mounted on curved or complex surfaces too.

The inspiration link on the website points to a list of expected applications such as gaming, theme parks, museums and the like. My favorite idea is the medical app. Imagine controlling the nano-bot surgery from computer screen zooming in as appropriate. In this application it is easy to loose perspective of where you are. Blow it up and project it on a Q-Screen could make surgical nano-bot control trivial with precision control and no loss of perspective at all.

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