When it was first launched, Microsoft's Surface multi-touch table was, without a doubt, one of the best examples of what large-scale multi-touch can do, as well as living proof that we're closer to the “future” depicted in sci fi movies than we previously thought. However, the Surface was just the first from what will surely be a very long line of devices, and the people from Ideum have just launched a similar product that provides not only a wider diagonal size, but also an improved resolution.

Ideum's MT Table is a ruggedized multi-touch, multi-user table built specifically for museums. It provides a 50-inch surface and can attain a 1280 x 720 pixel resolution, which ranks it above the Surface from Microsoft. Furthermore, the device has a very sturdy build, since its frame has been built of aircraft-grade aluminum, while the surface is made from thick, tempered glass.

In order to work properly, such a device requires a pretty strong and reliable software application package. In the case of the Ideum, that package was delivered by Natural User Interface (NUI), a Swedish technology company specializing in multi-touch solutions. Hence, the Ideum makes use of NUI’s Snowflake Software, a gesture recognition multi-touch software package that provides a lot of interesting extras.

For example, the Snowflake allows developers to create their own applications with Flash, C/C++/C#, Java, Python, and other programming languages, and is also accompanied by several useful basic applications, namely Viewer (media viewer with support for image and video media types), Draw (basic drawing application), 3D model viewer (.3ds and .obj file format support) and others. The MT table also includes a feature called TouchEarth (Google Earth with a multitouch interface), which will most likely represent its main point of attraction, at least during the initial marketing stages.

And speaking of marketing, it's interesting to note that the first two multi-touch tables from Ideum will arrive in the The Don Harrington Discovery Center in Amarillo, Texas and Vulcan Park and Museum in Birmingham, Alabama, at some point in March. No pricing details for these things have been provided, though.




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