Get Your Greasy Hands Off My Touch Screen!

German-based Ubi Interactive announced a very interesting product that lets you create a virtual touch screen anywhere. It allows a Microsoft Kinect device to scan an area of your choosing to generate a virtual touch screen that will interact appropriately in Windows 8.

You generally use this in conjunction with a projector, which would act as the screen for a Windows 8 machine. You run this code, mark off the touch active areas, and now you get to use the touch screen power of Windows 8 rather than having to use a horrible mouse.

Microsoft gave the company an award for this product but let me assure you this is a bad idea. That is unless you have a great cleaning company to scrub down the walls where this is in action.

forget using it on an expensive rear projector screen. One swipe of your fingers across a high-end Daylite screen and you've ruined it. You cannot go around swiping most things that are not meant to be swiped. This kind of product invites a mess.

Touch screens themselves are gross with all the swipe marks and grease. It's OK on a phone since you can polish the screen with your pant leg. This is much harder on a larger tablet and impossible on a wall or screen.

Now you can pretend to touch the large screen and the Kinect will fake it and act as though you touched it. But, let's face it, most people will be running their grubby hands across the screen or wall.

At least with a white wall you can paint over the resultant grime when it begins to build up. Projection screens cannot easily be cleaned and have to be discarded. It's also a problem to clean large-format monitors that are designed to be touchscreens. Nobody buys them but if Microsoft continues down this touchscreen road, you'll probably end up with one.

There are various screen wipes you can purchase, but some people will stupidly splash water or Windex on the screen and risk ruining it.

This always turns into a disaster. Although I will say that the screen on the Kindle Touch does not seem to reflect the grease and smudges.

Whatever the case, the Ubi virtual screen is an interesting idea and one that would be useful in a presentation. Just be careful. You could be ruining something with the grease and the fingerprints and the smudges.

Signed,

My Mom