Laser rangefinder based touch wall from ’98

It’s interesting to look back over the years and see various technologies applied to solving problems, but not finding favor until later….kind of like this 1997 effort on using a laser rangefinder to track touch points on a large surface and Microsoft’s TouchWall. The two implementations are different, but it’s interesting to see where the overlap is and how people have been struggling with coming up with low-cost touch solutions for awhile.