It would be nice if we know the applications of multi-touch technology.
Please add what you think can be done using MT tables/screens etc.

Any general concept or ideas or application areas.....

Here are my two cents....

1- Manipulation of digital contents (digital photos etc.)
2- Zooming
3- Drag / Drop
4- MT usage in educational system (educational games)
5- Collaborative work in offices, meeting halls, exhibitions

Now its your turn..... Continue with number 6 .....
Please do not repeat.....

6 - Hand-eye coordination (ie. disabilities, sport, etc)

The danger of general categories like number 1, 3 and 4 is that there are specific activities that could be assumed to be under their umbrella, but really are different. Since there’s room for 99 I’m going to throw up my usage and application ideas, hopefully they are within theme for the list, and non-repetitive.

7. Multi-touch turntable for DJing (like number 1 but music not photos and more defined as an activity/application)

8. Sterile & Sterilizable computer interface/display for medical use (even in surgical bays), ability to manipulate all digital info on patient be it files or test results (MRI, x-ray, etc)

9. Food friendly surface for use in restaurants as interactive tables/menus/Nutrition information/bill&payment system

10. Interactive gaming surface (not educational, just for fun and family) My game ideas include:

* Multitouch flight simulator Cockpit Controls, a panel that is easily redefined for the air plane being flown, ie: integration into x-plane. Even a co-pilot can activate switches.
* A really, really neat pool game (using DI, fidicuals and ‘pool cues’ on a virtual pool table) - or virtual air hockey.
* I envision a multitouch poker table with virtual cards and chips. (a cupping motion of the hand over the ‘cards’ allow them to be revealed to the player - yet his hand blocks other players views.)
* An extension to existing miniature games using fidicuals & DI, dynamic scenery and position tracking. So a gameboard that can change it’s appearance and be aware of the identities and locations of the playing pieces. I’m thinking Warhammer 40k but it could be Risk or pretty much any board game.

fox0ne - 30 January 2008 02:28 PM

The danger of general categories like number 1, 3 and 4 is that there are specific activities that could be assumed to be under their umbrella, but really are different............

You are right that some specific categories can be mixed with general ones but ...
it would be nice if people explain it a little bit, like you did in your post. Thanks

Here is another one.

11- Analog+digital circuit design, verification, validation, testing ....

12 - Drawing
13 - Digital mixing table (Sound)

14 Oddly enough - Clothing design. With the right interface you could 3 dimensionally clothe and tailor virtual fabric for a ‘model’ then have the table display the patterns for cutting the fabric to create the design in real life. The design table is the pattern book for the designer. I think that would be an intuitive way to integrate high tech with an industry like fashion.

i would at some point in time want to develop the following >>

15 - a multi touch digital drafting table (CAD) for architectural use… combining manipulation of “digital” drafting tools using hand / gestures and physical objects like stylus / pencil to draft / draw.

16 - A Star Browser… A tool that lets us explore the known universe

Kinda like this:

Google Sky - Download

cool, ya it looks like the inverse of Google Earth.

In collaboration with this another aspect could be:

17- NASA space adventure simulations (for teaching purposes in schools, colleges, universities etc.)

Keep this thread alive. We are hoping to reach the figure 99.

@c.moore.... won’t this be possible with the touch-earth plugin for google earth… just by switching to sky watch mode???

18-statistics, changing variables in equations using sliders to change the result

19-*edit* Editing and mixing music like a DJ (really: because it is cool)

20- black jack and other card games

For 19: this is a reason, not the application
Please try to edit this and add some application idea. I am sure you can.
by the way, u r right it is cool

Thanks to admin(s) for making this thread sticky. 

20: commercial interactive displays
21: Interactive maps like kiosks for travelers new to cities
22: Faster video editing, you could have a film strip that shows shot footage with each frame side by side, then you could edit or re-arrange by touch
23: The coolest web browsing you’ve ever seen
24: Real Estate Blueprint re-arranging software for like floor plans and the like
25: Paper replacement if all documents become digital, they will replace paper and save tons of trees, while still allowing hand written msgs
26: Medical Training tool for practicing on virtual patients
27: Air Traffic controlling instead of typing in coordinates you could touch the plane’s icon and drag it to the area you want and a program could upload that data to that plane real-time
28: Simple and rapid file transfers, if you want me to be more specific on this one please visit my post under introductions, for it is part of that OS I’m after.

I tried to put in ideas that others haven’t come out with already, but I know many other uses. Feel free to e-mail me at if you want to hear more about my ideas

29. interactive quickshare applications (for instance in schools where you want to show some data from your mobile or laptop to a large group of people)
30. common cd/dvd player replacement. (You only have to put the cd/dvd on top, the numbers or scenes appear and you can select them, switch them etc by touch.)

(btw i’ve seen the dj application for three time now..)

31. Drag-and-drop programming interface - developed from mind-mapping. Objects are objects to drag and manipulate ect. Commands are dragged to its place and all connections between functions and objects are updated automatically
32. Mind mapping software for multiple users - this have been one of the first applications I have seen on videos.
33. As living room table the MT-table could act as a remote control, DVD-player and digital jukebox, interface for internet and downloable music ect - basically replace home computer as most of consumers use it. - This includes many single application ideas tough…

That’s it for now… maybe more later on

34: educational use: note writing, object manipulation (words, graphics) to build sentences, word/letter tracing, presenting
35: extended paint applications/uses (brush identifications/types, finger painting )
36: dynamic music interfaces (virtual piano/[insert culture] stringed instruments/drums, etc...)
37: interactive desktop, i forget the name of that object oriented desktop software...anyone?