Interacting with paper on the DigitalDesk

Instead of making the electronic workstation more like the physical desk, the DigitalDesk makes the desk more like the workstation, and it supports computer-based interaction with paper documents. The DigitalDesk is a real physical desk, but it is enhanced to provide some characteristics of an electronic workstation. A computer display is projected onto the desk, and video cameras point down at the desk to feed an image-processing system that can sense what the user is doing. The interaction style supported by the desk is more tactile than direct manipulation with a mouse, and it seems to have a wide variety of potential applications. Some issues to be addressed when implementing a digital desk include camera and projector resolution, finger following, good adaptive thresholding, and calibration. A working prototype is described which addresses each of these issues. Work on the DigitalDesk can be seen as a step toward better integration of paper documents into the electronic world of personal workstations, making paper-based information more accessible to computers.