Design Communicative Art
Starting 2011 with a Multitouch Project
The year of 2011 brings me a new home project. I've been living without any tables in my apartment for just over 2 years. Every time I go shopping for furniture, I find the cost is too high for what you get. $500 and all you get is five legs and a flat surface. I keep reminding myself that I could have a really kick-ass table if I build it myself. It isn't the cost of the table that bothers me, it's that I like style and creativity and feel it's a waste to spend the money on a generic store bought table. To circumvent this issue, I've decided building a table that requires programming and LEDs would be a good idea. In the past, I've worked on a pressure sensitive table using a micro-controller and electrostatic dissipative foam (ESD foam), but I never really got to constructing the table. A fried LCD panel and a different project to take its place and I was on to other things. Still three couches and no tables.
The new attempt at building a table is starting out to be quite expensive. I've gone from spending a few hundred dollars for some retail waste of space to a $2,500 multitouch coffee table. We are only four days into the new year, but I've got quite a bit of the research done. I have the projector, computer, surface materials, table type (DSI multitouch) all spec'd out. I've even have a professional drafting up the table and materials. There isn't going to be any wood in this table. I don't have a table saw and I'm not about to start asking for favors.
2011-01-04 - Follow this story's progress.