Turn anything (even your clothes) into a touchscreen

Want the convenience of a touchscreen without the hassle of removing your phone from your pocket? Researchers at Microsoft have you covered, with two new touch interfaces that let you turn any surface into a touchscreen or control your phone through a trouser pocket.

OmniTouch combines a pico projector and a Kinect-like depth-sensing camera to create a shoulder-mounted device that can project a multitouch interface on to a wall, desk or even your own hand. Users can define the size and location of their own interfaces, or let the system decide the best choice of display. Chris Harrison, who worked on the project, calls it a "mega Kinect hack" and an extension of his previous device which could only work on skin. While the prototype device is quite bulky, the team says it may be possible for future versions to be the size of a matchbox.

If you'd rather not project your screen for all to see, PocketTouch lets you control your phone while keeping it in your trousers. The team created a prototype device with a grid of touch sensors that can detect finger strokes through cloth and developed a specific unlock gesture that reorientates the screen each time you use it - avoiding the need to flip your phone upside down before using the interface.

They found that the screen was sensitive enough to use existing Microsoft touch recognition software, making it possible to send a text by drawing characters one by one, or control your playlist with a few strokes of your thigh. Both systems are being presented this week at the User Interface Software and Technology symposium in Santa Barbara, California.