New From Office Labs: Touchless

A new project from Office Labs has just been unveiled: Touchless, a multitouch software app and SDK that lets you create and experience multi-touch applications of your own...with no need for expensive hardware or software. The way it does that is with the use of a standard computer webcam and colored markers that are defined by the user. These “markers” can be anything you want – just so long as you can hold them in your hands. Or, heck, the markers can even be your fingers themselves.

Sound familiar? Probably because it’s very much like Cam-Trax, which I mentioned earlier this year.  The difference is that unlike Cam-Trax, with Touchless there is an open source application and SDK available, which anyone can see, use, and contribute to.

The app features four demos of the technology: 1) Snake – where you control a snake with a marker, 2) Defender – an up to 4-player pong game, 3) Map – where you can rotate, zoom and move a map with 2 markers, and 4) Draw - where you can draw with a marker.

Check out Touchless in action in the video below: