Three suggestions: Advertisements, Casinos and Conference rooms.
Multitouch naturally thrives in places where many people congregate and interact on the same set of digital content. While multitouch seems to be doing swimmingly in the pocket (thank you iPhone). I think multitouch will actually produce the biggest dividends out in public.
Will multitouch be everywhere? Maybe it gets so cheap that it doesn’t cost much to throw it into a monitor or laptop but I don’t think it’s realistic to expect to see multitouch used effectively in cubicles over the next five years. People that have been sitting in front of the computer screen for years aren’t known for their shoulder strength and endurance. And keeping your arms at eye level for half the day isn’t a realistic new years resolution.
Advertisements and Expos
Intel believes the future for multitouch might be in advertisements and signage. I mentioned Intel’s CES booth a few posts back and think it shows off some of the functionality that Intel might have in mind.
There are currently a large number of examples of multitouch being used at expositions and conferences to advertise or present information. I’m expecting that trend to continue over the next few years.
Here’s a cool information tree used at a conference in Austria.
And a 20 foot wall built for Dubi World Trade Center:
Casinos
Casinos were one of the first places to adapt the Microsoft surface tables and casinos seem to be a good fit for multitouch displays. I expect that Flash developers will play a roll in producing casino gaming content as the 10.1 player becomes available. Flash has always been a favorite for game developers and I expect the same to be true for multitouch gaming.
I hope that combining this with the ability to handle multiple inputs and multiple users will empower casino software firms to consider it as a viable option.
Surface:
Here’s a Multitouch table for Blackjack. Seems like it needs a higher resolution projected image but it’s a great prototype:
Conference Rooms
I mentioned this cool interactive conference room in an earlier post. And it seems that with the right software multitouch could be a valuable tool in a conference room environment.
Here is a portable multitouch device used in an architecture conference room scenario:
Where else do you guys see multitouch technologies prospering? Education or the medical field maybe? Thanks for your comments.
