Insight TOUCHSCREEN GAMING


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The applications for 3M Touch Systems’ Multi-Touch technology have dramatically increased with truly stunning displays at G2E


For an exhibition filled to the gills with gaming machines, G2E is far too business-like to allow you to stop, catch your breath and have some fun. A visit to the 3M stand, however, redressed all that, as the enormous Multi-Touch screens transport you into the Minority Report, spinning, twirling, zooming into and discarding images floating past you on the screen. The fact that this is casino security footage is just part of the hands- on fun, as 3M's David Henry selects the image, highlights a particular person on the floor for surveillance with a single finger swirl and sends the image off to the right department by flicking it to an adjacent screen. "We are demonstrating to visitors collaborative working," explains Mr. Henry on the 3M stand. "Whether these screens are a couple of feet or thousands of miles apart, the working process is the same, with images sampled and analysed between colleagues working together on the same project."


Demonstrating the process on a 3x2 screen mega-wall at the exhibition, complex data sets are overlaid on top of one another, with streaming data sets giving real-time analysis of a subject in stunning HD. The example at G2E showed a football game with player statistics adding to a tiled environment in which game statistics, player reports and


enormous


multi-touch screens


transport you


into the world of the minority report.


commentator analysis are overlaid in an interactive, clearly laid out tiled environment. The applications for the gaming sector are obvious, as casino management data substituted for player statistics could deliver real-time information about a particular player, table or slot, while camera images are shown on the same screen, with overlays detailing the past play statistics for further analysis and action. The same screen can be viewed from multiple locations, with input from all parties adding to the collaborative working process.


Of course, the applications for Multi- Touch aren't all back of house. A 65ins. screen was also on display showing how players can co-operate and compete on the same screen, or play against others in the same location, or in locations separated by continents. "When we have


3M Touch Systems’ David Henry and Tim Holt


demonstrate the


incredible breadth of Multi-Touch


applications at the G2E exhibition.


"When we have demonstrated the


capability of Multi- Touch in slot


environments we have witnessed players engaging


completely with the experience. Players interacting with the screen in this way stay longer and enjoy a more


natural experience with the game.


Bally Technologies started with the iDeck, a touch


component from


3M, and we're now seeing every


manufacturer out there at different stages of Multi- Touch


development." David Henry, 3M.


demonstrated the capability of Multi- Touch in slot environments we have witnessed players engaging completely with the experience," explains Mr Henry. "Players interacting with the screen in this way stay longer and enjoy a more natural experience with the game. Bally Technologies started with the iDeck, a touch component from 3M, and we're now seeing every manufacturer out there at different stages of Multi-Touch development."


A flat bar top display shows just one of the application of this technology, with poker played on a completely flat surface, a player's and cleaner's delight. The highly strengthen glass taking all the knocks and scrapes this kind of environment can throw at it, while the functionality of being able to flick, twist, discard and interact with cards, as you would on an iPad or iPhone, is such a natural proposition, you forget that you can't do that right now in a bar or casino location at present.


There are in fact so many applications for this technology that it's more about the limits of the manufacturer's imagination, than it is the limitations of the technology. Watching people at an ATM trying to interact with the screen, before realising that they have to press physical buttons, you realise the sheer scale of the applications waiting for this technology.


December 2011 Page 47


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