Korean researchers have created a transparent, 2-sided touchscreen

Touchscreens have typically been a one-sided affair. Most of the interaction is done from one side of the screen, usually with the one facing you. This means sense as the display and the other components are found on the underside, so it wouldn’t make sense for the user to interact from the other side of the touchscreen, right? Well thanks to a team of researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, they have come up with a touchscreen display called Transwall that allows the user to interact with both sides of the display. In fact given that it can be used on both sides, it would also open up the display to be used by more than one person, thus fostering collaboration.

So you’ve got a touchscreen on your phone, but you can only touch one side of it. That’s pretty boring, right? A team of researchers from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have gone beyond a simple touchscreen and created a clear wall that can respond to touches on both sides simultaneously. Not only that, but the input from the two sides can interact in a variety of ways. The so-called Transwall is currently mounted to a large T-shaped frame that houses a small square of the material. Of course, any real production version of this system would be an actual wall rather than a window like this prototype. The touch surfaces are standard sheets of plexiglass, but behind each one is an IR touch sensor that detects when someone is interacting with the plexiglass. Sandwiched in the middle is a holographic film that allows images to be projected on the wall. Perhaps you’ve noticed the lack of traditional screen technology in the design. How can this be a display without some pixels? The touch interactions detected by the IR layer are sent off to a computer that processes the data and then projects the image on the screen via a pair of projectors mounted on the arms of the T structure. That’s how two people can interact with the wall at the same time.