MultiTouchScreen
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Ideum's MT65 Presenter: a $17,500, 65-inch, multi-touch display for your own museum
Ideum's 65-inch MT65 Presenter is a multi-touch 3D display designed for public spaces, so large that Surface 2.0's looking a bit sheepish right now. The aforementioned tempered-glass mega-screen has a sensor that'll identify 32 individual points of touch (to think: we thought five-and-ten finger touch was impressive) and a PC with a 2.2GHz Core i7 CPU, 256GB SSD and GeForce GTX 460 nestled inside the four-inch "vandal proof" aluminum frame. There's also a Carl Zeiss-lensed HD webcam with a stereo microphone for those moments when you want to see your beloved's face in eye-popping detail. Today's release of the unit is running Windows 7, but the company has announced that in March you'll also be able to get Linux editions of this and its MT55 Platform unit too. The $17,500 you'll spend also gets you access to the GestureWorks SDK for rolling-your-own tactile apps: museum curators with some budget to blow should head on past the break to read the PR before working out how to justify having one in your office to your boss.
Apple granted patent for 'portable multifunction devices' with multitouch screens
Avid watchers of tech know that Apple is almost as good at requesting patents (though, its record of defending them is somewhat less impressive) as it is at actually creating compelling products. Three years after initially filing for the design of a "portable multifunction device" with a multitouch interface, the USPTO has awarded the Cupertino crew a patent that's sure to raise few eyebrows amongst its competitors. At a glance, the language seems to cover practically any device that allows touch input to control content in a frame on a webpage independent of controlling the rest of the page -- which we're sure Jobs and co. are excited to add to their growing stockpile of claims to gestures and capacitive displays. Of course, a rival would have to infringe on all elements of a patent's independent claims before it'd need to fear the courtroom, so it's probably best not to get too hot and bothered here. For those looking to pore over the specifics, that source link is a good place to head.
Neonode's zForce optical touchscreens hitting ASUS tablets later this year
It's been over a year since Neonode coyly said some nameless "Asian companies" would use its multitouch zForce displays in future products. Now one of them, at least, is coming out of the woodwork -- ASUS said it plans to ship a "series of products" with these optical touchscreens later this year. What does this mean for consumers? Neonode's screens don't tack any additional layers on top of the touchscreen, making this line of 5 to 13-inch displays different from more common capacitive and resistive ones. The result, Neonode says, is thinner and -- one would hope -- more responsive screens. No word on when these products will hit (nor how creative ASUS will get with its designs), but feel to dig for details in the terse press release.
Token multitouch screen shows us the future of DJing, today (video)
Think you know multitouch surfaces? Think again. We've just come across a video demo of the Token multitouch, erm, pedestal, which seems to have come straight from the future. A clear sheet of glass that beams out video from your computer and accepts touch inputs in return, the Token concept has been designed by a chap named Rodrigo hailing out of Chile. We know it uses a rear projector for its video, but other construction details are scarce at this point; what's really special here, however, is the way he combines it with a Traktor Pro controller titled Emulator, turning a few intelligent finger swipes into a kickass light-and-sound show. See it on video after the break.
Dell SX2210T adds touchscreen functionality to 1080p panel (Update: multitouch!)
You asked, questioned and implored -- why, with all these underpowered touchscreen all-in-ones prowling our lands, can we not get a decent standalone touchscreen monitor? Well, somebody somewhere listened, and somebody else, presumably elsewhere, leaked. Presenting the entirely unofficial, but all the same real, Dell SX2210T: a 1920 x 1080 21.5-inch panel that has HDMI and DVI inputs alongside an integrated 2 megapixel webcam and microphone for your Skyping convenience. If its 1,000:1 contrast ratio and 2ms grey-to-grey response time sound familiar, it's because the non-touch sensitive SX2210 has been available for a while already. From the support documentation we're looking at, you'll need to hook up an extra USB connection for the touch interface, which doesnt appear to be multitouch, but we can always hope for a miraculous firmware update down the line, right? Update: More info has surfaced on this monitor, which can now be purchased for $469 from Dell's online store, and will come with multtitouch panning and zooming when attached to a Windows 7 machine. [Thanks, Bruce and dennispg]
