3M Launches 20-Finger Multi-Touch Display

/palmface
Why?

Ok.... Not to ask stupid questions, but why would you need to have a screen that can have inputs from that many fingers at once? lol

we have reached the point where further development in technology is getting increasingly useless... This in only useful for large surfaces, not a desktop display!

Think bigger than 22".

playing a game with two people?

Good technology for times to come, and for early adopters I guess. Nevertheless, once that's implemented in a bigger system it really sounds useful.

Now I can multi touch using my hands and feet, 5 fingers left hand + 5 fingers right hand + 5 fingers left foot + 5 fingers right foot = 20 fingers.

I guess this means I can finally accurately input what I want to while I am using my monitor as a skateboard. Hooray for R&D!

RS232....... motherboards still have those ?

Isn't mutli-touch detection kinda like counting. Once you figured out that 2 came after 1, and that 3 came after 2, is it really that impressive that 20 comes after 19? I mean really, all they've done is increased the processing power to track 20+ inputs instead of the 3 or 4 of previous devices, right?

And touch points? You mean my fingers are simply activating various points on a detection grid (like buttons or switches)? I suppose the detection had to be reduced to a discrete number at some point, but only 3358 touch points? That's 73x46 points. That's what, 3 every 2 centimeters or something? That's not a very precise surface. Maybe I'm just confused.

LOL Twenty fingers on a 22" display? Four full hands, trying to make different gestures? Are we talking about using this for a pre-school? LOL

Now, put this on a 60" display, and hang it up in a board room with multiple windows open so folks can work on different things at once.... maybe I can see it. But even still, then you'd have at least two people standing in front of the display to manipulate it...

It's forward thinking technology. Like for when conference rooms will have a touch screen for the table allowing multiple participants to interact. Pretty cool when you think of the applications.

^ this.

Not on 22" ... what the heck, what can you do with 2-20 hands on a 22" lcd? One is the driver, the other one looks and points, not work too. It'll be weird.

Made for people with Houdini-like toe control or for two-person teams sharing a touch-screen?

I believe you're thinking of the 20+ touch in a linear fashion rather than simultaneous. A lot of touch-screen devices can only track one touch at a time. If you touch with two fingers, it tends to jump back and forth. Multi-touch devices have started to become more common, and these can track, well, more than one touch at a time. Of course, 20+ is beyond their capacity.

So what are the potential applications of something like this? A touch-screen keyboard that could actually keep up with a proficient 10-finger typist. A collabortive screen where multiple people could input information or maninpulate objects all at the same time.

A lot of times, stuff like this will come out and people will treat it like a solution in search of a problem. That's not entirely untrue. Often times, the next great gadget is only possible once certain technological breakthroughs have been achieved. In fact, there was an article that came out when the iPad debutted pointing out that an iPad prototype was actually invented a decade or so earlier. However, it would not have been possible to create THE iPad because the technology did not exist yet.

I agree with this. An application on a conference table could be useful. Introducing a 20 touch display on a 22" is kind of silly. I guess you have to start somewhere...

Finally, a touch screen designed for the neglected tentacle monster market.

I'm sure monkeys will enjoy this display, considering they can make good use of their toes.

This tech should be good for MS surface concept. I still remember seeing the concept of playing D&D on "surface" system. Yes... 20+ multitouch seems a little bite useless on up-right monitors... but... it can be very useful when the monitor is bigger and lying down as a table surface..

God, 20+ fingers! I need to roll around in radiation a bit more so I can grow another pair of arms!

hhmmm.... imaging having a 50" monitor on the table surface.. having 2 3D glasses-equiped people trying to catch a fish from the monitor with their fingers...

hmmm...

kind of freaky...lol

You might want to get that checked out... O_o

I think the 22 inches is a bit small for 2 to fit comfortably and use it, but it's a good bench mark for number of inputs. I'd much rather see more inputs than needed rather than too few. It helps ensure future multi-touch displays will reach this 20 input goal (and hopefully be larger displays).

Or you're penis if you don't have 20 fingers.

I could see using eight fingers by my lonesome when moving volume sliders in a DAW. That sounds fantastic to me for doing automation vs. the old "one at a time 8 times over".

Would all depend how accurate it is but; if you can draw on it... I assume it would be accurate enough.

You are assuming that the screen cannot tell where you are between touch points.

This would be totally awesome for a virtual synthesizer, sampler, or soundboard! I want one! But alas, it is too expensive to be practical for now. It might also be tough to find a software that supports it?

I'd like to see more technology like this come out. Touch screens have been around forever, but a nice touchscreen monitor is still unaffordable for the average consumer. I wouldn't mind having one personally.

+1 Exactly what I was thinking of. This would also be great if you put 6 or 8 together with the ATI eyefinity to make a large tabletop "display" for conference rooms.

yeah. how can u possibly get 20+ fingers on there, with precision accuracy, if its so small?

with that many fingerprints you don't have to worry about them, as they would cover most of the screen.... you're gonna have to put fingerprints on the clean areas to make the surface even.

That is what I was thinking, imagine how many different synths and drum machines you could simulate. Hell, you could even simulate turntables with two of them.