Monday, March 3, 2008

NextWindow Demos a Multi-touch Display: A more affordable "Surface".

NextWindow has a multi-touch display! This display was demonstrated at a recent digital signage expo in Las Vegas.

If you are waiting to get your hands on something multi-touch, you don't need to wait to get a Surface:



I need to get my hands on one to see/feel how my projects-in-process play out on the screen. For those of you who don't follow my blogs, I tested out several of my project prototypes for my HCI and Ubiquitous Computing classes on a variety of displays, and found that I liked the NextWindow display the best in terms of resolution and touch-response. (See poetry picture share and photo-globe explorer)

Not long after that, Microsoft unveiled the Surface, which still is out of reach for most humans. I recently came across a demonstration of the Surface with a multitouch game, "Firefly", developed by Carbonated Games. The video was produced by Sarcastic Gamer.



I imagine that FireFly would work just fine on the NextWindow, even if the display is upright, not a table.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There are all sorts of touchscreens: the old kind were single touch. There's also a plethora of two-touch displays, which I suspect is what NextWindow has produced (like a Smart Board). SmartSkin, Perceptive Pixel, DiamondTouch, and Surface are all *real* multi-touch displays. Might want to fact check a bit.

Lynn Marentette said...

Responding to Anonymous:

I have a few references and links to various touch screen applications and technologies on my Interactive Multimedia Technology blog.

For readers who'd like more information about the rich history behind multi-touch screen technology, Bill Buxton's Multi-Touch Systems that I have Known and Loved website is a great place to start.

I came across Bill Buxton's website before the Surface was unveiled by Microsoft when I was conducting a review of the literature on the topic for a class I took last year.

A good resource about the range of interactive tables is Pasta & Vinegar's blog post,A list of interactive tables.

Microsoft UK is working on multi-touch applications, as you can see in this video.

The NUI group is working with multi-touch and have an open-source library. The group now has over 1,000 members.

For readers who want to dig even deeper into this topic, there are quite a few research articles to be found in the ACM and IEEE on-line libraries.