Schematic's Cannes touchwall identifies users via RFID, almost escapes gimmick status

We love us a good multitouch wall experience, sizing up and rotating irrelevant bits of media like the Tom Cruise wannabes we are, but this new multitouch wall unveiled by Schematic at the Cannes Lions advertising festival almost brings the tech into the realm of relevance. The main innovation is the identification of specific users through the swipe of an RFID badge, allowing multiple users to operate the display simultaneously with personalized data and "social" functionality. Schematic's dream really is a Minority Report-style world of advertising, but until that chilling future is fully realized, we suppose we can handle a few gimmicky multitouch walls and half-developed socializing functionality in the near term. Hit up the read link for video.

[Jarhead111 @ Jun 26th 2009 9:04AM]

I'm waiting for that paint-on TV for the 4 walls of my bedroom.

[OneLove @ Jun 26th 2009 10:17AM]

1. Paint the wall white.
2. install projector.
3. put your junk in the box.

[nanomatrix @ Jun 26th 2009 10:41AM]

haha i just read this when I scrolled down...

"put your junk in the box"

ROFL---

it puts the lotion in the basket...

[Tommo @ Jun 26th 2009 9:10AM]

It's only a gimmick because we have seen them in movies so many times, but big touch displays like this would be absolutely functional and useful in most businesses for group work and other tasks, being able to easily access and control data on this tyle of system would speed up tasks a lot.
I prefer the transparent glass touch panel floating in the air style, make them!

[CtrlBurn @ Jun 26th 2009 9:38AM]

Hell yeah. All plain white girl looking bored while she draws curves on it with a white-out pen. More Star Wars tech, please.

[JC @ Jun 26th 2009 10:02AM]

Reminds of the the last hope hardware with a cooler interface.

[Danny Moore @ Jun 26th 2009 11:30AM]

Whatever happen with the Microsoft Surface computing?

[Sisyphus @ Jun 26th 2009 11:31AM]

Think outside the big ass table.

Or in this case, perpendicularly.

[Magallanes @ Jun 26th 2009 2:55PM]

MS is working on it, Silverlight and WPF 3.0 will feature some "microsoft surface" stuffs.

[mupferby @ Jun 26th 2009 2:08PM]

Their concept of tracking more than one person on a multi-touch surface is not new. Mitsubishi labs already did this three years ago with their multi-touch table, and did it without RFID!!

[Magallanes @ Jun 26th 2009 2:54PM]

A vertical touchscreen interface trend to be a really tiring experience.

[loosely_coupled @ Jun 26th 2009 3:50PM]

Exactly, it doesn't matter whether we are talking about a giant wall or a PC/ laptop. That is what is so dumb about the HP all-in-one PC with touchscreen and all the people waiting for a multi-touch iMac. You are going to be able to hold your arms out manipulating the interface for about 5-10 minutes before total fatigue sets in and you can't even lift your forearms... Totally not thought out.