Multitouch applications: education
Education is seen as a prime market for multitouch in the UK. Tomohiro Uchida, systems engineer at Hitachi Interactive Media Solutions says that:
“In the UK education sec-
tor, the use of multitouch is still in its infancy; however, we are seeing it being imple- mented to great effect by a number of schools as an ena- bler for whole-class teaching and student collaboration. Over 80 percent of primary and secondary schools now use interactive whiteboards as part of daily teaching. As a result, we are seeing a grow- ing demand for multitouch to provide a fresh dimension to the learning experience to help re-engage students.” Uchida believes that the multitouch influence of consumer devices is already impacting on education users. “Students are sur- rounded daily by the latest consumer technologies, so it is imperative that educa- tion moves with the times to provide them with the up- to-date interactive learning experience they have come to expect in the classroom. “With many schools con- sidering their options for second generation, replace- ment technology, Uchida believes that: “Multitouch in the education sector is definitely one to watch - we anticipate that over the next five years, as greater empha- sis is placed on whole-class teaching and learner partici- pation, there will be a much greater uptake and applica- tion of this technology”
retrieving product information. Later this month, GestureTek is launching a new 42” LCD multitouch table. The new GestTable has Full HD resolution and accelerated response times with multiple cameras running at 100 fps. It’s a modular unit with a shallow 8” panel that can be sold separately, purchased as a turnkey table, or built into cus- tom furniture designs. The GestTable screen can be used horizontally, for table or counter use or vertically and hung on the wall. Units can be locked together in multitouch video wall configurations. With Windows-7 HID compatibility, the table is capable of running applications written for the new Windows 7 Surface SDK. Jordan explained that: “Our table is compatible with the Microsoft Surface Toolkit for Windows Touch so that any other kind of multitouch application created for Windows 7 can run on it. Our system supports Windows 7HID (Human Interface Device) and TUIO. We will be demon- strating it at InfoComm with the latest Nuiteq Snowflake Suite 1.9.1 and several new practical multitouch applications.”
Options
The interest in multitouch has prompted a number of other vendors to enter the market with both integrated and over- lay solutions for both multi- touch and ‘two touch’. The multitouch version of Sahara’s 65-inch CleverLCD Touch is imminent and DisplayLite has a new range of
NEC professional LCD public display units with a fully integrat- ed NextWindow touchscreens. Based on NextWindow’s Optical Imaging Technology the screens are available in 32”, 42”, 46” and 52” sizes.
The range supports two simultaneous touch points, and is said to be ideal for any applications that utilises com- mon gestures such as zoom
and rotate. A plug-and-play USB touchscreen controller and hardware calibration func- tion simplifies installation. The DisplayLite Optical Imaging screens are available through Midwich, and, for integrators, the Diss-based distributor also has NextWindow and Panasonic overlays available separately. Midwich also has the Samsung SM650TS and the 3M 22” LCD
M2256PW 20 point touch point screen previewed in AV News last month.
This is said to offer 20-plus finger multitouch input and a high-definition, wide view- ing-angle LCD. Based on 3M’s Projected Capacitive Technology (3M PCT), the M2256PW display offers application devel- opers a less than 6 millisecond response time for 20 simultane-
ous touches.
The 3M Display M2256PW features a 1680 x 1050 LCD screen, DVI and VGA video input, audio input, USB and RS232 (serial) dual-mode communi- cation protocol and a durable, anti-glare front surface. It is Windows Touch AQ-tested for 20-plus fingers.
“The application possibilities for multitouch are colossal as
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