Sensor augmented large interactive surfaces

Large interactive surfaces enable effective multi-user collaboration, but a majority of the current multi-touch systems are not truly multi-user. In this work we present a novel sensor-based approach for both user identification around a touch table and integration of unique gestures above the table. The work proposes the criteria for a successful and robust user identification system. The Cricket sensor based user identification system is integrated with an open source gesture recognition system "Sparsh-UI" to enable rapid multi-touch application development. Finally we evaluate the Cricket-based algorithm with contemporary multi-user, multi-touch systems and describe the various interaction affordances provided by the Cricket based user identification system.