ScreenTickle

A frame to seamlessly transform any laptop into a touchscreen.

Video Demo

Built by: Irene Boby, Wani Gupta, Subin Lee, Ella Smith and Kristin Wu

How It's Made

1. Pairs of infrared LEDs and photodiodes detect interruptions in light beams with the presence of a finger.
2. A bit array representing where touch was detected on the x and y axes is sent over BlueTooth to the laptop.
3. A Python script processes the type of touch and calls the PyAutoGUI library for screen control compatible with Windows and macOS.

Installation Instructions

Windows

In the command prompt, create a virtual environment and activate it.

python -m path\to\env
path\to\env\Scripts\activate.bat

Then, install the packages in requirements.txt.

python -m pip install --upgrade pip
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

Mac

Create a virtual environment and activate it.

python -m venv path/to/env
source path/to/env/bin/activate

Then, install the packages in requirements.txt.

pip install --upgrade pip
pip install -r requirements.txt

MAC may need to make changes in the privacy and security setttings: Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility > Switch on for the application running the Python script