TouchSmarter: Touch Screen Gadgets

 Jazzmutant brings us further along with multi touch, retrofitting it into a 12 inch Fujitsu tablet pc. The most impressive elements to this device are in its user software. The video shows how an artist or designer could manipulate an image with one hand, while using the other to select various tools, or vary settings like zoom or rotation. This should immediately make the technology desired by graphic artists the world over.

In addition to this prototype shown at SIGGRAPH 07, Jazzmutant has shipping products like the Dextor, an innovative touch device for controlling audio.

There is no end to the imaginative uses people have been finding for multi touch technologies. The Reactable looks like a cousin to Microsoft’s Surface. It is, essentially, a multi-user musical instrument.

The reactable is a tangible electronic musical instrument that allows expressive collaborative live performances for professional musicians without the limits of many screen-based interfaces for electronic music. As its name suggests the reactable is a table-based instrument; it can be played by manipulating a set of objects that are distributed o n top of the table surface. Each of these objects has its dedicated function for the generation, modification or control of sound. Bringing these objects into proximity with each other constructs and plays the instrument at the same time. While the table is equipped with sensors for the identification and tracking of the objects, the players themselves do not (and must not) have to wear any controller devices. In addition to the sound which is obviously produced while playing, the reactable also provides additional visual feedback by projecting a visualization of the sound-flow onto the table surface.

Be sure to check out the link up top for more videos and information on other multi touch musical systems. We could not make this stuff up if we tried.

The first thing we thought of is that this Reactable would make a perfect addition to the iBar we featured recently.

Some of the issues surrounding multi touch focus on the useful application of the technology. The hardware seems ready, but seeing examples of compelling uses of the technology is a more daunting task. What about playing games? That is sure to appeal to a mass market. Mitsubishi and their DiamondTouch platform have a video of Warcraft III as played with multi touch.

It sure looks impressive, and entirely useful. Maybe the few video game arcades that are left could jump on this bandwagon.

This is not new, but we thought our readers who haven’t seen it would find it interesting.

iBar is a system for the interactive design of any bar-counter

Does anyone know any bars that employ this product? Would certainly be worth a visit to see it in action.

Microsoft seriously needs to get this guy on board the Surface project. The stuff he is doing with multi touch and interfaces is absolutely ground breaking. Here is another video of his.

The most impressive aspect of this video is the audio commentary/interview. Jeff seems genuinely concerned with bringing multi touch to consumers. Initially the target market is small, as he alludes to with his response to cost, but it is reassuring to hear him suggest the technology will trickle down. We wish you the best of luck Jeff!

Thanks to Multitouch.nl for these. The first video is an interactive demo of Microsoft’s Surface. It is nice seeing the presenter having to answer questions, as well, it does a fine job showing some of the practical applications for Surface. We might have to plan a stay at Caesar’s Palace in Vegas next year to get chance to play with Surface hands on.

We do not have any information about the next video. If you have any details about the following, please leave them in the comments. The unique aspect of this technology is that it tracks hands in 3d space, actual touch is not needed.

This gives us hope for future versions of the HP TouchSmart PC. They call it the Interactive Canvas.

It is not showing us much in the way of new ideas or UI, but it is another sign that more and more companies are working on touch/multi touch interfaces and technologies.

If you have a touch screen PC like the HP TouchSmart, or a tablet PC, and do any web browsing, have we found the add on for you. Grab and Drag for Firefox allows you to move through the web page with your finger/stylus. It is very similar to scrolling on the iPhone. We highly recommend you give this a try.

Take a look at it in action:

Gizmondo has a great interview with Peter Hutterer, who is working on bringing multi touch to the Linux world via Multi-Pointer X (MPX). The project sounds very promising, with some advantages compared to Microsoft’s Surface platform, such as recognizing up to four unique users.

Here is a clip of MPX in action. How come mapping seems to be the default demo program in all of these multi touch videos?! This is certainly not as polished as the Surface demo nor what Jeff Han’s has done. Still, it is progress, and it may be the catalyst for getting widespread developer support for multi touch. The touch + mice feature is a neat trick.