OmniTouch is designed to be wearable. The prototype is a shoulder-mounted device made up of a laser-based pico projector and a depth-sensing camera, similar to that found in the Microsoft Kinect.

The OmniTouch uses the depth-sensing camera to build a graphical model of the world which allows it to calculate how far away objects are. The system's software can recognize fingers, and a depth map allows it to determine whether a finger is touching a surface. When a finger touches a surface onto which an interface is projected, users can interact with the screen, clicking buttons or dragging icons, in the same way they would with any other touchscreen.

Photo: Microsoft Research/CMU