Multi-touching is good
A team at New York University have been hard at work on a "multi-touch interaction surface": a touch screen that has the ability to read and react to more than one finger or pointer at a time. This ability at the very least allows for multiplayer gameplay on touch screens. The team have released a very impressive demonstration of their test screen, which you can view after the jump.
The demonstration shows off a puzzle game similar to planarity, a virtual vinyl deck and a few "ooh, that looks pretty, I think I'll touch it" games. The possibilities don't end there though. Combine this multi-touch screen with locational force feedback and suddenly you've got a replacement for buttons and control pads. Imagine a future version of the Nintendo DS that replaces the buttons and D-pad with a tactile multi-touch screen.
[Thanks, Back_Lit]
