By now, you’ve probably seen or at least heard of the Microsoft interactive table system. This is one of the coolest things ever, even if you don’t care for Microsoft. Sort photos physically, ‘fling’ music and pictures onto your assorted devices and more.

But what if you don’t have the thousands of dollars to spend just to be able to have a really nifty setup like this?

I would love to be able to buy something like that. But if you don’t have the thousands of dollars to spend and are good with making things, then you can build a multi-touch input device (the fancy term for the touch screen system). The down sides are that it will be a bit ‘crude’ (you have to write your own apps) and you do need to find a video projector for this project.

On the other hand, it seems you can find projectors on eBay for not too much (if you look carefully). There is even an auction or two selling instructions on how to make an LCD projector (less than $10 for the instructions) if you’re so inclined.

As far as the ‘crudeness’ goes, I would guess that the more people that use it, the more call there will be for programs and the more people will build programs for it; just like how it is with Linux.

So go ahead, get in early on the next stage in computing - without breaking the bank.