The Vision-Pad, a convenient input device

The concept of the Vision-Pad, a new approach for a device supporting the interaction of man and machine is presented. It is based on an image pick-up system, which detects a hand's or pointing device's position over a panel. This information is processed by the system to feedback the hand's position to the user using the computer's or machine's standard display device. By this concept no direct view to the panel, no change of view directions, and no distance adaptations of the eyes are needed to obtain a reliable input. These features allow a safe and comfortable input especially in critical environments, such as e.g. cars, as well as help for disabled people. A demonstrator based on a plastic optical fibre is realized, which shows the applicability of the basic concept in various environments even with changing illumination conditions. Moreover, the possibility for a realization using little computational power and minimum hardware expense is pointed out.