Hey peeps,

I'm building a reactable (just google it if you don't know what it is) and I'm looking into ways of lighting the inside of the box, but also have it look cool. At the moment I'm thinking of something like Cathode tubes or LED's.

I'm wondering if anyone knows where I could get them from, either in Brissy, or cheaply online.

I've got an old pc working to run as the brains of the instrument, and I'll be building the wooden enclosure this weekend, as long as work pays me. It should be awesome once it's done.

Zygurt

EDIT: Another option is those usb powered LED lights that plug into a usb port like this.

And if I had unlimited money, one of these would be awesome as well.

you should get a blacklight or something, that would be pretty cool

Yes it needs to be backlit so that the camera can see the markers that I put on the table, hence my question as to where to buy lighting stuffs.

LightsRus

whatever that thing is...it looks like a waste of cash lol, cool but a waste of cash. Whats wrong with just saving your cash and buying Reason 4/FL Studio/Kontrol/Kore 2/Ableton ect ect? There is an aussie product that is sort of similar but uses translucent buttons that can have its imprint images changed electronically, very cool peice of equipment without looking like theme park equipment.

Good luck to your build though, LED's are the right choice as power wise and illumination are good



Thats what I was talking about, cool bit of gear

Well I already own Pro Tools 8 and Sibelius 5 and I'm a beta tester for Propellerheads Record. The main thing with the reactable is that it's a different way to control sound rather than using a mouse or midi keyboard.

Where abouts would I get these LED's from? I found some on the same site that I linked to with the usb led light, but postage was more than the LEDs themselves.

well you could try jaycar, they do alot of electronics self building shit, Im sure i've seen a thing for 12v LEDS and downlights and such that you can buy, plus they are aussie too.

Website: www.jaycar.com.au

how simple lol front page has LED's and shit on it haha

Mmm i usually buy specialize electronic components from farnell.com, they have an Aussie branch and they are very competitive prices.
PS.Buy as much crap as you can because there only a minimum postage of $20 i think so it might be less if it post in Aus, but that $20 will post anything so it could be one LED or could be 500000 Led it will still cost you $20 to post

i've made some of my own multitouch hardware so i can help you out here. firstly, all the information you want on something like this you can find on nuigroup.com/forums
if your talking about a white backlight to illuminate the LCD or whatever you use to display the image, then the best way to do that is use a piece of endlighten, side lit with LED strip lighting.

Endlighten is like acrylic that contains tiny reflective particles that are angled so that light coming in from the side is diffused out hte flat sides, working as a backlight. the bset place to get this is here http://www.acrylite-shop.com/US/us/acrylite__endlighten/crfo8s7j0ro_artikel_liste.htm but you need to know someone in the US to ship it over. Another easier and cheaper option is to ask someone on the NUI group if they have some endlighten spare, because they use a lot of that stuff for DSI. I know peauproductions has some 14mm sheet he can sell you, pm him if you want.

The best place for LED strip lighting is Superlight, which operate in australia http://www.superlight.com.au/FWS/modules/estore/public/fes_catalog.php?id=1
their superstrip or turbostrip are both good, but the turbostrip is much priceir but your getting much brigher illumination out of that if you need it

edit:
dont use cathode lighting, the tubes put out IR light which would intefere with the reactable
and RS online is the best place to get electronics, if you select the 'production packaging' option available on most items you get free shipping, so if you need parts order from there, they have shitloads

also, if you wanna see what ive done i can pm pics of my multitouch screen to you



edit edit:
actually ignore most of the above, from what i can tell you're not going to have a display just a sensor for the objects, i would pain the inside of the box white, then shine IR led emmiters at that, and mod your camera to detect IR light. If you dont want to do that then I suggest using either red or green LEDs

Thanks for the info Clerk. Is there a tutorial on modding a camera to detect IR light? I haven't bought the final camera yet, but I don't want to spend heaps of money, but I want one that will track the markers well.

Is this how you would mod it? http://www.instructables.com/id/Infrared-IR-Webcam/

Is there a reason as to why you recommend red or green as opposed to blue or white?

Also, because I have 2 spare molex connectors from the power supply I was hoping to run the lighting off of it, rather than have another cord sticking out of the box. Is this possible or would it just be easier to have another cord running out of the box?

If you could send me some photos that would be awesome.

Sorry for all the questions, but I'd like it to work well.

Thanks for the link mr. man with bucket for a head.

if u have a another power supply it won't work unless it is also plugged into a mobo and turned on as u need to trigger the power to go to those molex like a transister, so if u run the cords out of the case that should do as ....well yeah.....i hope this helps.........SERBZ

No its the same PSU, I just have extra Molex left over as I only have a dvd and single HDD in it. So how do led's in case mods get connected?

EDIT: I've been looking into it and I'll just wire, either the visible spectrum or IR to female molex using the 12v rails and she'll be schweet.

So Clerk would you suggest IR over Visible?

EDIT EDIT :p : so it looks like it will either be this http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=ZD0460&keywords=LED+strip&form=KEYWORD (12VDC SMD LED Light Strips - Blue/White ) or something like this http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=KG9068&keywords=IR+Light&form=KEYWORD (IR LED Kit)

For these, would it be a simple case of connecting it to the molex, or would a resistor be needed?

dont use either of those theyre pieces of shit, if you want any info go onto nuigroup.com/forums and look in the hardware section for DI (diffused illumination) which is what your trying to do. If you want MUCH better and simpler results, try DSI (diffused surface illumination) which works with a piece of endlighten (available from the link i sent before) with IR LEDs shining in from the side. The endlighten then diffuses the light out, then when an object is placed on top it reflects the light down for teh webcam to detect. There are 2 ways to do DIS, either with LED strip lighting around the side, or using an aluminium U-Channel with LEDs mounted in holes along the edge. I recommend using OSRAM SFH485P LEDs which are available relatively cheap from RS online http://australia.rs-online.com/web/search/searchBrowseAction.html?method=searchProducts&searchTerm=sfh485p&x=0&y=0 these are very powerful so you only need about 20 of em for a 17" screen.

here is an archive of the pics i took of my LCD multitouch box http://rapidshare.com/files/266828018/Batch.zip.html its finished now and so looks better than it does in the pics

Infrared is much better than visible, firstly you wont actually see it so your screen wont look like a red/green blob, and it isnt affected by background light if you use the right filter. here is a great website that explains multitouch technology. http://peauproductions.com/

The best webcam to use is by far the PS3 camera, if you are interested i can explain how to get that working and i can show you how to mod one for detecting IR light. From what I assume, you dont want any visual display, just the sensing. If you do want to include a display it isn't actually that much harder, except it involves dissecting an LCD screen which may not always turn out good

Hey Clerk,

Bought a playstation eye today. Just wondering how much force you have to use to get the back off it. I've undone the screws and have the top and sides loose, but I can't seem to move the bit around the cord.

glad you got the ps3 eye, if you look on nui forums then there should be a few video tutorials in the right sections, and you can post any questions there.

You have to remove the back cover with some force, the base is screwed to the pcb internally so don't try removing that, here is a good guide on dissecting a ps3 camera http://alexpopovich.wordpress.com/2008/09/05/sony-ps3eye-b304061-ir-filter-removal/

and here are the ps3 drivers for windows if you dont yet have them http://alexpopovich.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/sony-ps3eye-camera-directshow-capture-source-filter/

If you want to remove the IR filter the easy way, you can buy a M12 lens mount and cctv lens. here are the best places to get them. If you do it this way you wont get any focus issues associated with the IR filter removal and you can use a wide angle lens:

Lenses: $14 for 6 different view angles and free international shipping
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15774

Lens mount: You can buy this camera REALLY cheap, dissect it and remove the lens mount which you can attach onto the PS3 camera with the screws it comes with
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/5-0M-PIXEL-USB-6-LED-PC-CAMERA-MIC-WEBCAM-FOR-LAPTOP_W0QQitemZ310152056554QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCA_Video_Conferencing_Webcams?hash=item483680ceea&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14.l1262

and look here for an overview of multitouch techniques, you'd want to do DI od DSI because you'll be tracking objects. I strongly suggest DSI though
http://nuigroup.com/forums/viewthread/1982/

and once again, nui group forums are the best place to get info from, you can make an account and post questions there if you want