The Evolving Landscape of Interactive Surface Sensing Technologies

TL;DR

This survey reviews the evolution of interactive surface sensing technologies, covering principles, applications, and challenges, and discusses emerging modalities for future intelligent environments.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of past, present, and future sensing technologies, highlighting technical tradeoffs and design considerations.

Findings

Capacitive touch is now the dominant technology.

Emerging modalities include mmWave radar and vibration sensing.

Persistent challenges include accuracy, power, and privacy concerns.

Abstract

Interactive surfaces have evolved from capacitive touch and IR based systems into a diverse ecosystem of sensing technologies that support rich and expressive human computer interaction. This survey traces that progression, beginning with infrared vision based approaches, such as FTIR and diffuse illumination, and the rise of capacitive touch as the dominant technology in modern devices, to focusing on contemporary modalities including vision and acoustic sensing. New technologies under development are also discussed, including mmWave radar, and vibration based techniques. Each sensing technique is examined in terms of its operating principles, resolution, scalability, and applications, along with discussions of multimodal integration. By comparing tradeoffs between sensing modalities, the survey highlights the technical and design factors that shape interactive surface performance and user experience. The review concludes by identifying persistent challenges, including sensing accuracy, power constraints, and privacy concerns, and outlines how emerging sensing modalities can enable future interactive environments to be ubiquitous and intelligent.