The Media Computing Group, a research group based at RWTH Aachen University, Germany has unveiled its latest research project – BendDesk. The think tank headed by Prof. Jan Borchers, conducts research in Media Computing and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) beyond today's graphical user interfaces.
BendDesk is a multi-touch desk environment that seamlessly combines a vertical and a horizontal surface with a curve into one large interactive workspace.
The group’s media release says: “For most people from many different disciplines a desk is the main workspace. A typical desk is composed of at least one or more vertical displays that show digital content and a larger horizontal area, containing input devices, such as mouse and keyboard, paper-based documents, and everyday objects. These two areas are clearly separated which makes it hard to move documents from one surface to the other. Furthermore, each area employs a different interaction technique. For example, we use the mouse for drawing on vertical displays but physical pens to annotate paper-based documents. BendDesk is our vision of a future workspace that allows continuous interaction between both areas.â€Whilst it’s at the concept stage at the moment (as evinced by the wooden construction!) the concept of a rear-projected workspace is attractive to applications such as control rooms or advanced design.