And another very promising multi touch table

Earlier I discussed the multitouch solutions from Structable and MS (the surface) and besides these (and all (multi)touch all in one pc's) there is also the The Ideum mt2 Table. This seems to be a pretty idiot proof design created for a museum but pretty useable for other purposes as well. It still might be a bit too expensive to double as a dining table but in an enterprise environment there are some nice applications I can think of (and probably even create since they deliver these tools as well with the table). According to their website:

Ready to Go

The mt2 Table supports multi-touch and multi-user interactions. It has a bright 50" (diagonal) surface with a high-resolution display, which is higher than Microsoft's Surface multi-touch table. The large display also makes it easier to for multiple simultaneous visitors to interact with computer programs and one another. The multi-touch support allows the use of intuitive hand gestures to manipulate images and media items and to interact with computer-based applications.

Made for the Museum

As museums are moving toward developing exhibits that foster more visitor communication and interaction: the mt2 Table is a great platform for these types of computer-based exhibits. The playful nature of multi-touch interaction and the large surface and low table height all contribute to the visitor experience. The mt2 Table does what traditional computer kiosks can't do: it fosters social interaction and allows visitors to interact physically with museum collections and educational programs.

One Tough Table

The mt² Table is designed for active museum environments. Both the outside frame and the interior railing system is made of rugged, aircraft-grade aluminum framing material. While the table top is made of thick tempered glass. The interior components have been selected for their quality and durability. The mt2 Table has been field tested at a hands-on science museum.

The 50" (diagonal) glass top is coated underneath with projection material for a bright display. The display size is 16:9 ratio at 1280 x 720 pixels. The bright 2100 ANSI projector has a 2000-to-1 contrast ratio and the image displays on the table with zero keystoning. The high-resolution DLP projector has 3,000 hour bulb life.

NUI Suite 1.5 Snowflake

The mt2 Table ships with NUI's innovative Snowflake Software. NUI Suite 1.5 Snowflake is a fast and reliable gesture recognition multi-touch software package. This software suite includes NUI Touch Core, which can be used with any programming language that supports the TUIO protocol. Software developers can create their own applications with Flash (ActionScript3), C/C++/C#, Java, Python, and other programming languages.

The NUI Snowflake package comes with a set of basic applications: Viewer (media viewer with support for image and video media types), Draw (basic drawing application), 3D model viewer (.3ds and .obj file format support) along with other applications. The mt2 Table package even includes NUI's TouchEarth (Google Earth with a multitouch interface).

Collection Viewer

Each mt2 table comes with Ideum’s Collection Viewer, a multitouch enabled image and video viewer. The Collection Viewer uses Adobe’s XMP metadata providing important information about the media items displayed. In addition, the Collection Viewer supports the Timed Text standard, allowing for captioning of videos.

Ideum’s Collection Viewer, a multitouch enabled image and video viewer.

Struktable - a 70 inch multitouch table

Ok before going into a bit more detail on the latest developments at Struktable I'v got a question for you. What would be your ultimate multi touch application besides rotating and resizing photos and zoom in and out at google maps-earth? Please reply with your ultimate multitouch application

The Struktable is an interactive installation built by Strukt to develop multi-touch applications. It can be rented for events or permanent installations with custom software developed for individual needs.

With its 70-inch display size, the Struktable is built for simultaneous interaction of up to 8 people. The touch-sensitive surface recognizes unlimited finger touches at the same time - therefore, users can interact more intuitively.

The portable design makes it versatile for diverse applications: product presentations at trade fairs, interactive gamestations at conferences or information terminals in public space.

The Struktable makes use of the FTIR (frustrated total internal reflection) effect. Therefore, infrared LEDs are placed around the acrylic top, and finger touches reflect the light into the camera on the bottom of the table. Only one PC is needed for tracking, gesture recognition and 2D/3D rendering of the GUI. A beamer then projects the GUI onto the surface.The only downside to me here is the resolution. It's not a full HD screen but only 1280*800 pixels. The big plus is the design. It just looks great

Applications for the Struktable are implemented in vvvv, a rapid prototyping software. The tracking algorithms have been realised by the Technical University Vienna. Basic applications are ready for use, while custom software can be developed by Strukt on demand.

And for those interested there is a lot to read on their cool table at: http://multitouch.at/