Motivation for the proposed project

With the advancement in the technology various mobile devices are seen we
use PDA, laptops, Mobiles, tablet PC etc. All these devices are becoming smaller in
size but our fingers are not. So we all face text entry a huge problem in such device.
So we started searching for some solution for this and after searching we got few
products in eBay website those were for sale. At the end I have attached that
webpage for “Bluetooth Laser Projection Keyboard for PC laptop Phone“, the
product is priced at $450 nearly Rs22000.

But that system was costly and most parts are not available in India so we
decided to build similar thing with our own idea although we are motivated by
product but we want to do it our own from the scratch.

Problem Formation

So our problem is to design a system which can provide keypad/keyboard

less text entry we want a system in which we don’t have to carry keypads or if it
has some miniature keypad we don’t have to struggle for text entry, we want
something which is small but give us sufficient spatial dimensions so that we can
enter text with an ease. Options were to use foldable keypads, projection keypad
both are not so feasible so decided to go with something new and innovative. We
decided instead of projector we will use some other light source like laser and we
will use paper so that keys are visible to user now user can use this paper for text
entry and after work is over he can fold the paper and put it in pocket or some file.
For this system to work we need embedded system with camera which will monitor
movements of paper and process the image to decode which key user intend to
enter.

Relevance of the subject in present context

A projection keyboard is a virtual keyboard that can be projected and

touched on any surface. The keyboard watches finger movements and translates
them into keystrokes in the device. Most systems can also function as a virtual
mouse or even as a virtual piano.

How a projection keyboard generally works:

• A laser or beamer projects visible virtual keyboard onto level surface

• A sensor or camera in the projector picks up finger movements

• detected co-ordinates determine actions or characters to be generated

Finally the aim to give better text entry experience and as projectors are still a
costly and not easily available component we have designed our own method for
text entry.
Literature survey

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projection_keyboard
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/pen-computer.shtml
http://www.jrobot.net/Projects/AVRcam.html

How the proposed system is different from existing system:

• First of all we are not using projectors mainly to build a low cost system.

• Our algorithm to decode a key using camera output is will required less
resources as we are not doing any character image processing.

• As projectors are not use life of the system will be more and even
maintenance will be easier.

• As we are using paper as input so we can have any key configurations so we

can have customizable keyboard with some better software techniques with
we will implement in future. But there is direct scope to use various
keyboards.

• Papers are used and once they are old you can take a new print out. And you
keyboard becomes new basically you have new keyboard every day.

• Special surface requirement is not there they will work on glass also.

Synopsys:
Already Mailed to you

Photograph (if available)

Applications

• High-tech and industrial Sectors

• Used with Smart phones, PDAs, email, word processing and spreadsheet tasks.
• As computer/PDA input.
• Gaming control.
• TV remote control.
There was one international conference on such topics

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~ILIM/ProCams2010/participation.html

http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1394622