Multitouch display, build your own: preparing a silicone rubber layer, video howto!

When I tested for the first time my homemade multitouch display setup, I was too excited at the beginning to complain about the lack of sensibility. I had to press hard on the rear projection film to let the webcam detects the "blobs" of the infrared light bounced out of the acrylic. Later I understood this and I decided that it was the time to get a compliant surface made of silicone rubber as I was reading on the NUI Group forums.

I had a lot of doubts regarding the preparation because, of course, I never used this kind of material so I didn't had a clue of how to work with it. But the need was so strong so I decided to try at least once. Half a Kg of silicone rubber costed me 40 euro so I decided that this was my maximum budget to give a chance. But of course I didn't want to waste it!

Anyway, at the end of the game, I have to say that it was far more simple than I was expecting. I have to say also that I spent some time thinking about all aspects of the preparation process in order to avoid to waste the only chance I had for stupid mistakes.

I had great results regarding the silicone rubber layer even if later I had the surprise that, in my case, this layer alone with the rear projection surface won't work: I had to add an additional layer made of sketch paper to have the great sensibility that I was looking for.

I intentionally filmed all the preparation process thinking to make a video that may be helpful to someone else that is in the same situation I was, so, now that I saw the good effects of the silicone layer and after some (too many) hours of video editing, I can finally say:
HABEMUS VIDEO!



I really hope that you enjoy the video and that it may solve out any doubts you may have about the preparation of the silicone layer. Feel free to comment this post to ask for additional aspects or questions that I forgot to mention in the video or in the past posts. I would like also to know if you're going to prepare such compliant surface and, if you already did it, if it is working out for you even without the additional sketch paper layer.
Enjoy!