wirmachenbunt is a company specialized in building interactive objects, prototyping and motion graphics. This network of creatives, drifting between a strong affinity to technology, design, art and commercial applications, aims at providing unique solutions for almost every case that involves light and interaction, from the abuse of projectors to illuminate a floor or using electronics and microcontrollers to create objects with senses. As they proclaim on their site: "we create the tools, the toys and rock solid products".Prototouch is wirmachenbunt's first multi-touch prototype, a display recognizing multiple touches as well as being pressure sensitive. The method used is the well known FTIR (Frustrated Total Internal Reflection) trick, developed by Jeff Han. No off-the-shelf software is being used for Prototouch, which means that the authors had to craft their own code for tracking and visualization using VVVV. This customized toolkit, including self-made freeframe plugins, is very reliable and accurate. And as they explain on the site, the prototype is now quite robust against daylight and has low latency, although both parameters will be improved in the future. wirmachenbunt says they are currently working on different projects that incorporate multi-touch and they hope that Prototouch will serve as a flexible test platform.
One of the apparent advantages of this tool, as seen on the demo movie, is the dynamic control and exploration of network visualizations. It certainly opens a door for promising interactive tools where users become an integral part of the visualization due to its immersive nature.
