Multi-touch

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Multi-touch screen

Multi-touch (or multitouch) denotes a set of interaction techniques which allow computer users to control graphical applications with several fingers.

Multi-touch consists of a touch screen (screen, table, wall, etc.) or touchpad, as well as software that recognizes multiple simultaneous touch points, as opposed to the standard touchscreen (e.g. computer touchpad, ATM), which recognizes only one touch point. This effect is achieved through a variety of means, including but not limited to: heat, finger pressure, high capture rate cameras, infrared light, optic capture, tuned electromagnetic induction, ultrasonic receivers, transducer microphones, laser rangefinders, and shadow capture[1].

Many applications for multi-touch interfaces exist and are being proposed. Multi-touch is often associated with Apple Inc's iPhone and iPod Touch but is also used in many other products such as Apple's MacBook and MacBook Pro notebook line. Other products with multi-touch technology include Microsoft Surface, Asus EEE PC, and Meizu M8.

Modern multi touch controllers support Single-Touch and Multi-Touch All-Point touchscreen applications which allow functions such as playing video games on a mobile handset,using GPS to key in multiple locations, etc.

Contents

[edit] History

Multi-touch technology dates back to 1982, when Nimish Mehta at the University of Toronto developed the first finger pressure multi-touch display.[2]

[edit] Bell Labs

In 1983, Bell Labs at Murray Hill published a comprehensive discussion of touch-screen based interfaces. [3]

In 1984 Bell Labs engineered a touch screen that could change images with more than one hand. The group at the University of Toronto stopped working on hardware and moved on to software and interfaces, expecting that they would have access to the Bell Labs work.[2]

A breakthrough occurred in 1991, when Pierre Wellner published a paper on his multi-touch “Digital Desk”, which supported multi-finger and pinching motions. [4][5]

[edit] Fingerworks

In 1999, Fingerworks, a Newark-based company run by University of Delaware academics John Elias and Wayne Westerman, produced a line of multi-touch products including the iGesture Pad and the TouchStream keyboard.[2] Westerman published a dissertation in 1999 on the subject. In 2005, after years of maintaining a niche line of keyboards and touchpads, Fingerworks was acquired by Apple Inc.

[edit] Recent developments

Various companies expanded upon these discoveries in the beginning of the twenty-first century. Mainstream exposure to multi-touch technology occurred in the year 2007, when Apple unveiled the iPhone and Microsoft debuted surface computing. The iPhone in particular has spawned a wave of interest in multi-touch computing, since it permits greatly increased user interaction on a small scale. More robust and customizable multi-touch and gesture-based solutions are beginning to become available, among them TrueTouch, created by Cypress Semiconductor. The following is a compilation of notable uses of multi-touch technology in recent years.

[edit] Microsoft Surface

Microsoft Surface.

Main article: Microsoft Surface

In 2001 Steve Bathiche and Andy Wilson of Microsoft began work on an idea for an interactive table that mixes both physical and virtual worlds. Research and Development expanded rapidly in 2004, once the idea caught the attention of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. In 2007 Microsoft introduced Microsoft Surface, a functional multi-touch table-top computer based on a standard PC platform including an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, Windows Vista, and 2 GB of RAM.[6]

Essentially, Microsoft Surface is a computer embedded in a table with a large, flat, touch-responsive display on the top. The table uses small cameras (as opposed to finger pressure or heat) that enable it to react to the touch of any object. The unit has eight different modes that allow users to perform an array of activities,ranging from organizing pictures and videos to ordering food at a restaurant. Multiple users have the ability to work on the table at one time. The preliminary launch was on April 17, 2008, when Surface became available for customer use in AT&T stores. The price for one unit is said to range somewhere between $5,000 and $10,000.[7]

[edit] Windows 7

A multi-touch photos application is demonstrated in Windows 7.

Windows 7 will support Multi-touch[8]. The operating system is known to have a multi-touch mapping application, photo viewing program, and incorporation in Internet Explorer 8. In January 2009, Microsoft joined with other investors who invested twenty-four million dollars in N-Trig Ltd., which plans to make computer hardware that takes advantage of Windows 7's multi-touch support.[9].

[edit] Apple products

In 2005, Apple acquired Fingerworks. In 2007 they introduced the iPhone, marking the first time multi-touch technology was used on a phone. The iPhone includes such components as a web browser, music player, video player, and a cell phone without the use of a hard keypad or stylus.

Following the release of the iPhone, Apple also expanded its use of multi-touch computing with the new iPod Touch, as well as the new MacBook Air. Multi-touch was later added to the 2008 MacBook Pro line in the form of a trackpad.

The latest revisions of Apple's Unibody MacBook and MacBook Pro features a full glass multi-touch trackpad (whilst the MacBook Air features a standard multi-touch trackpad). These enable various gestures such as scrolling, "swiping" between pages or pictures as well as rotating pictures, and launching Expose.[10] Apple has patented “Multi-Touch” technology that already existed as its own and the vapor trademark to the term "Multi-Touch".

[edit] TacTable

TacTable, based in Cambridge, MA, is a spin-off from the graphics company, Near-Life, that specialized in interactive museum exhibits, most notably the virtual fish tank at the Boston Museum of Science. TacTable has extended the Near-Life, camera-based multi-touch technology to large multi-touch tables. Their most notable installations include a large table at the Sprint flagship store in Kansas City MO and the Cirque du Soleil "Beatles Revolution" interactive tables. TacTable tables enable simultaneous interaction by several people.

[edit] NUI Group

In late 2006 NUI (Natural User Interface) Group was founded. It is currently the only Open Source Multi-Media group dealing with Multi-Modal Multi-Touch Interfaces. They have pioneered the creation of several Open Source applications that make developing DIY Multi-Touch Hardware very simple, including tBeta and TouchPy.

[edit] CUBIT and TouchKit

Addie Wagenknecht and Stefan Hechenberger of Nortd studio, based in New York and Vienna, created a scaled-down open-source version of Surface, called CUBIT (multi-touch) and a screen based kit called TouchKit. According to the website of Technology Review magazine, "By sharing the Cubit's hardware schematics and software source code, the engineers are significantly reducing the cost of owning a multitouch table. But they're also fostering innovation by giving engineers an open platform on which to develop novel multitouch applications--something that they've previously lacked. It will cost anywhere between $1,000 to $1,580 depending on hardware used." [11]

[edit] Perceptive Pixel

Jefferson Y. Han debuting his initial multi-touch system at TED

Perceptive Pixel is a company founded by New York University consulting research scientist Jefferson Y. Han that creates wall displays and tables. The displays use infrared light emitting diodes along with an infrared camera to determine the point of contact. Han envisions large collaborative spaces that will allow multiple users to work and interact. Perceptive Pixel’s technology is currently being utilized, in the form of the Multi-Touch Collaboration Wall, by CNN and an unspecified government contractor.[12]

[edit] Asus EEE PC 900

Asus has included a multi-touch touchpad in the Eee PC 900, which they announced in April 2008. Depending on the installed drivers, it can be used for scrolling, 3 button operation, dragging and resizing and rotating pictures.

[edit] Dell Latitude XT

In July 2008, Dell released multi-touch touch-screen drivers for the Latitude XT Tablet, claiming the "industry’s first convertible tablet with multi-touch capabilities."[13] Dell has partnered with multi-touch technology startup N-trig to enable multi-touch capabilities for its tablet. [14]

There have been numerous reports of serious problems with the XT multi-touch drivers or hardware interface, which, as of October 2008, remain unresolved by Dell.[15] The major issue is centered around the multi-touch drivers failing when the computer is booted when USB devices are connected at boot, or when certain internal media drives are present. Often, but not always, the issue is resolved if the computer is booted without the USB devices and they are connected after boot.[16] A similar, but not identical, issue may also be caused by interfering software, such as the iTunes helper.[17] Issue resolution is complicated by the possible failure of the driver install program to function in the presence of damaged drivers, requiring manual removal of related files and registry keys..[18] See External Links for links to user discussions of this issue.

[edit] Promethean Multi-user Activboard

A number of prototype, simultaneous, multi-input whiteboard techniques have been developed by Promethean Ltd. Many of these ideas were first exhibited at the NECC 2007 trade show in Atlanta as upgrades to their popular Activboard Interactive Whiteboard. New features included collaborative concept mapping and multi user flipcharting. The technology is commonly found in schools with around 200,000 classrooms now equipped with Activboards. The Activboards are currently available in sizes up to 95 inches but larger displays are possible and add little to the cost.

Video of the technology can be seen on YouTube[19].

Unlike some other multi-touch systems where there is no identification of a particular user or their role, the various Activpen inputs on the Activboard surface can be differentiated, enabling multiple users to operate differing software features and functions simultaneously. This approach is intended for social use of the interactive surfaces where users operating at the same time often need to use different tools or user interface elements to complete a task. When a single user uses two pens, one in each hand, the familiar multi-touch operations such as 'pinching' to scale images and dragging touch points apart to stretch are possible.

[edit] MPIS-Multi Point Interaction Surface

[citation needed]Multitouch Research in New Zealand by James Dalton has led to the development of The MPIS and can be bought early in 2009 for $3000 NZD for a 1Mtr by 1Mtr touch surface and later custom solutions will be available as well as units with built in computers, currently implementing a website to advertise these screens. The units will use your existing computer using well known versions of Windows XP and Vista although slightly modified to harness the potential of this technology, so users can use everyday programs with ease and most importantly more than one user can operate the system at any given time.

[edit] JazzMutant

The French company JazzMutant make multi-touch screen controllers with a proprietary screen interface. They output MIDI or OSC for use with music, light or video software and are connected to a computer via a standard ethernet connection. Artists such as Bjork and Daft Punk have been known to feature them heavily during live concerts.

[edit] MTmini

The MTmini, created by Seth Sandler, is a very low-cost multi-touch pad that any one can build using a basic webcam, box, and piece of paper. When fingers are placed on the touch surface, shadows are created where the fingers press. The webcam sees these shadows and sends the image to an open-source tracking software called Touchlib. Touchlib tracks these shadows as they move around. MultiKey, a simple multi-user, multi-touch music application, and a photo application (similar to the one used to demonstrate Microsoft Surface) are among the various demo applications that are included in the MTmini free software package. Full details, download link, and video tutorial showing how to build your own MTmini are available at http://nuigroup.com/forums/viewthread/1731/

[edit] SparshUI

Sparsh UI is an open source cross-platform , device agnostic multi-touch gesture recognition framework.The goal is to provide multi-touch application developers with tools to quickly prototype and develop multi-touch applications.Sparsh UI is developed and maintained by the multi-touch group at Iowa State University's Virutal Reality Applications Center. For more details refer http://code.google.com/p/sparsh-ui/

[edit] Neonode

In February 2009 Neonode presented an optical (IR) touchscreen with full multi-touch support at 3GSM (see video: Neonode multi-touch 6.5" screen). An array of infrared (IR) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) on two adjacent bezel edges of the display, coupled with photosensors placed on the two opposite bezel edges, allow the system system to determine multiple concurrent touch events. The LED and photosensor pairs create a grid of light beams across the display. Objects (such as fingers or drumsticks) that touch the screen interrupt the light beams, causing a measured decrease in light at the corresponding photosensors. The measured photosensor outputs are used to locate the multiple touch-point coordinates.

[edit] The future of multi-touch

The use of multi-touch technology is expected to rapidly become common place. For example, touch screen telephones are expected to increase from 200,000 shipped in 2006, to 21 million in 2012.[20] Developers of the technology have suggested a variety of ways that multi-touch can be used including:

  • Enhanced dining experience
    • order food, ask for refills, split check, pay bill, entertainment while dining
  • Concierge service
    • locate landmarks, plan day, uplink info to cellular phone
  • Gaming
  • Governmental use
  • Concept mapping
  • An enhanced multimedia experience
  • Collaboration and instruction on Interactive Whiteboards[19]
  • Musical composition, recording and mixing.

[edit] Popular culture references

Pop culture has also portrayed potential uses of multi-touch technology in the future. The 2002 Science-Fiction film Minority Report showed different Multi-touch features like enlarging and moving objects around. The television series CSI: Miami introduced both surface and wall displays similar to Microsoft Surface in its sixth season. Another form of a multi-touch computer was seen in the motion picture The Island, where the professor has a multi-touch desktop to organize files, which was based on an early version of Microsoft Surface[2]. This technology can also be seen in the film Quantum of Solace.

A device similar to the Surface was seen in the 1982 movie Tron. It took up an executive's entire desk and was used to communicate with the Master Control computer.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Pennock, Jacob, Tabrizi, M.H.N, 2008, A Survey of Input Sensing and Processing Techniques for Multi-Touch Systems, CDES'08
  2. ^ a b c Buxton, Bill. 2008. Multi-Touch Systems that I Have Known and Loved. http://www.billbuxton.com/multitouchOverview.html (accessed March 16, 2008).
  3. ^ Nakatani, L. H., John A Rohrlich (1983). "Soft Machines: A Philosophy of User-Computer Interface Design". Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’83): 12-15. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/800045.801573. Retrieved on 2009-01-28. 
  4. ^ Wellner, Pierre. 1991. The Digital Desk. YouTube video
  5. ^ Pierre Wellner's papers via DBLP
  6. ^ Reimer, Jeremy. 2007. A day on the Surface: a hands-on look at Microsoft’s new computing platform. http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/surface.ars (accessed March 16, 2008).
  7. ^ Baig, Edward. 2007. Table is set for computing. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2007-05-29-microsoft-surface_N.htm (accessed March 16, 2008).
  8. ^ Windows Vista Team Blog. "Microsoft demonstrates Multi-touch". MSDN Blogs. http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2008/05/27/microsoft-demonstrates-multi-touch.aspx. Retrieved on 2008-05-28. 
  9. ^ Kenneth Pennington. "Microsoft Invests Big in Multi-Touch". Windows 7 Info. http://w7info.com/articles/2009/01/microsoft-invests-big-in-multi-touch/. Retrieved on 2009-01-12. 
  10. ^ [1]
  11. ^ Open-Source, Multitouch Display http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/20703/?nlid=1044&a=f (accessed March 16, 2008).
  12. ^ Green, Kate. 2007. Touch Screens for Many Fingers. http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18079/?a=f (accessed March 16, 2008).
  13. ^ Dell Propels Laptop Innovation With First Multi-Touch Convertible Tablet, Larger Solid State Drive
  14. ^ Exclusive: Hands-On with Dell’s XT Tablet Now with Multi-Touch
  15. ^ Tablet Touchscreen Died : Latitude XT : NtrigApplet Can't connect to driver
  16. ^ Can't connect to driver" How common is the issue?
  17. ^ How Many N-trig Driver Problems Are There? 2,3,??
  18. ^ WARNING: Latititude XT N-Trig software uninstall leaves Digitizer unusable
  19. ^ a b YouTube - ACTIVarena
  20. ^ Wong, May. 2008. Touch-screen phones poised for growth http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2007-06-21-1895245927_x.htm (Accessed April 2008).

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-touch"
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