Nov 6, 2008

Multi-Touch News from WinHEC and PDC

I received the following videos and links from Anthony Uhrick, who happens to be at WinHEC this week and was at PDC 2008 last week. Touch screen, multi-touch, and gesture technology is starting to catch on. (Anthony is the VP of sales for NextWindow, the company that created the touch screen for the HP TouchSmart and other multi-touch enabled displays.)

Below is a video clip of a multi-touch photo presentation system running Windows 7: Gesture + Touch - has gesture and physics engines.


Apparently the application can run on Vista, Win 7, and Win 7 Touch.

Here is an HP TouchSmart PC, running a Touch Map application on Windows 7:


The following clip is of a newscaster using a multi-touch transparent screen.The display is from U-Touch Ltd. a partner of NextWindow. In my opinion, the application enhances the viewers understanding of the various news topics, and is visually appealing as well.


The graphics engine used in this application was developed by Vizrt, the same folks who were behind CNN's video hologram. Here are a few pictures from the Vizrt website:








The workflow behind the CNN hologram
The workflow behind the CNN hologram (click to enlarge)

The transporter room during setup
The holograph "transporter" room.

For more videos using Windows 7 apps, see
creamhackered's YouTube channel. (Videos appear to be from NeoWin Net.)

Windows 7 Design Concepts and Usability Tests



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is all amazing technology. You've made an old nerd excited yet again. Surprised not to see the new Promethean ACTIVboards on display or at least their latest software.

Lynn Marentette said...

Dean,

What I'm happy about is that there is such an uptick in interest in multi-touch, "surface" technology!

I think there is a trend towards "all in one" displays, since they eliminate the need for projectors.

We still need innovative applications for the Promethean and SmartBoards in use in thousands of classrooms, since public schools have invested so much in IWB's over the past few years.

Lynn