CapTap - Combining capacitive gesture recognition and acoustic touch detection

Capacitive sensing is a common technology for finger-controlled touch screens. The variety of proximity sensors extends the range, thus supporting mid-air gesture interaction and application below any non-conductive materials. However, this comes at the cost of limited resolution for touch detection. In this paper, we present CapTap, which uses capacitive proximity and acoustic sensing to create an interactive surface that combines mid-air and touch gestures, while being invisibly integrated into living room furniture. We introduce capacitive imaging, investigating the use of computer vision methods to track hand and arm positions and present several use cases for CapTap. In a user study we found that the system has average localization errors of 1.5cm at touch distance and 5cm at an elevation of 20cm above the table. The users found the system intuitive and interesting to use.