ITRI’s gadget turn any TV into a touchscreen display

The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in Taiwan has recently come up with a new gadget that could possibly give touchscreen manufacturers a run for their money. They’ve managed to come up with a special device that can turn any TV (no matter what size it is) into a touchscreen device. Imagine buying a 55″ touchscreen display – the price tag isn’t going to be very pretty. However, this device will allow you to turn a regular 55″ TV into a touchscreen display. Now that’s more affordable. Not to mention convenient if you already own a large screen TV at home that you don’t want to replace.

The device consists of two sensors that are attached to the top and bottom corner of one side of the TV, and they can detect where your fingers are on the screen, allowing users to interact with whatever is being displayed (assuming it is a touch-capable app). It can even detect two point multi-touch gestures, so pinch to zoom is not out of the question. No word on whether it’ll be supporting pressure (it looks unlikely) but it does seem like a very interesting concept. Check out a video demo after the break: