Ideum Multitouch Table - Interactive Surface


Project Title:   Ideum High-Resolution Multitouch Wall
 

Museum/ Institution: Unnamed North American Aquarium   

Program Created: Multitouch Wall 

Media Category: Interactive Surface

Program URL:

http://www.ideum.com/blog/2010/11/building-a-high-resolution-multitouch-wall-part-1/
http://www.ideum.com/blog/2011/02/building-high-resolution-multitouch-wall/
http://www.ideum.com/blog/2011/03/building-a-high-resolution-multitouch-wall-part-3/
http://www.ideum.com/blog/category/multi-touch/

 

Project Image(s) and/or Video

 

 

 

 

Media Source(s)/Credit(s): deum, Ideum/Gestureworks

 

Program Description:  While we currently can’t see the final result of this installation (available with museum name summer 2011), Ideum gives us a rare behind-the-scenes look at how a multitouch wall is constructed. Nicely documented, the series of blog posts lest us look under the hood of what is sure to be an impressive exhibit component. Right off the bat, Ideum trims the usual rectangle into a 7’circle, appropriate for an aquarium. They give us details of every component, from the surprising weight of the ring itself (hundreds of pounds) to the haptic glass and seamless acrylic backing. The closed loop is revealed – the grid of low power lasers interrupted by touch and detected by cameras, which triggers the changing projected high resolution images. Using 2 short throw HD projectors, the wall will be better than HD resolution at 2560 x 2560. Both cameras and projectors are contained within the aluminum rigging.

Throughout the blogs, hyperlinks take us to suppliers and thoroughly inspiring new ideas (http://www.ideum.com/blog/category/computing/)

 

 

Firsthand or secondary review/critique: Ideum’s transparency in these blog posts is notable and commendable. I am impressed at how willing they are to share what many people would consider “trade secrets” with the entire museum community. MultiTouch is a social media, and Ideum seems to fully understand and work hard to enhance that component of their exhibit design.

Touch tables are an intuitively engaging medium and Ideum seems to take special care with their products, looking to incorporate the best audio, the easiest interface. The transparency on their website makes it chock-full of great information, from field studies on their work (http://www.ideum.com/blog/category/papers-presentations/) to involvement with Exhibit Files, a “A community site for exhibit designers and developers “ (http://www.exhibitfiles.org/)


I find it remarkable that Ideum’s Gestureworks is not only open source, but is accompanied by clear tutorials: http://gestureworks.com/flash-tutorials/

MultiTouch is a complex technology, and this series of blog posts helps to demystify how it is done, breaking the equipment requirements down into components, and revealing the trial and error involved with, for instance, the blending of the two high resolution projected images to form one super-high resolution image, all within a very small space.

 

The museum name will be revealed when the project is installed and the last blog  post is written, in May 2011! 

 

Technologies incorporated:

2 short-throw HD projectors - dVision 35 WQXGA XB LED projectors by Digital Projection.
 blending hardware - Digital Projection’s Fusion 3D hardware
NUITEQ’s SnowFlake Software
4  infrared cameras
84″ of seamless projection material
16 5mW lasers (Laser Light Plane (LLP)).


Specs for the system listed on the Ideum website:
Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 975 3.33 GHz
 (a "powerful custom-built  PC... used for tracking and powering the projectors")

nVidia Quadro FX 5800 4GB GDDR3

12GB Corsair Dominator DDR3

2x 300GB 10,000 RPM WD Velociraptor Hard Disk Drives (RAID 1)

920Watt Enermax 85+ Power Supply

3 PCIE Firewire Cards (cameras

)
Windows 7 Pro 64bit

 

 

Internally or externally produced:

Produced by Ideum 

 

Entry Contributor and Date: 

Laurie Stepp

4/22/2011 

 

Related projects:  

newest Ideum multitouch table http://www.ideum.com/blog/2011/04/new-mt55-multitouch-table/

other Ideum tables and stands http://www.ideum.com/products/

Stckable MultiTouch http://multitouch.fi/