This short video shows the multitouch wall exhibit, Tiny Drifters, which we helped develop for Monterey Bay Aquarium. The video will give you an idea of how the whole exhibit came together. As I mentioned in prior posts, this touch wall has some very unique qualities…

First off, it is big. It has a seven-foot diameter glass surface and while there are certainly bigger multitouch walls out there, few match our resolution at 2560 x 2560 pixels (better than HD) or if they do, they often aren’t contiguous. Many walls are made up of a number of separate panels or cells. Also, our wall is round, which by itself makes this an unusual installation. Additionally, the fact that this exhibit is permanent (many other walls are temporary) presented challenges along the way, as we used thick tempered glass and other hardened materials to build the wall.

The exhibit can track an almost unlimited number of points (hundreds) allowing for multiple visitors to interact simultaneously. We used a series of low-powered 5 milliwatt lasers successfully to provide the infrared light for the tracking. The exhibit has a relatively simple four camera system to capture the touch points. The software and beautiful 3D plankton models were created by Lindsay Digital using Unity. The group at the Monterey Bay Aquarium developed the concept and put together the team.

If you haven’t read them already, there are a series of posts on the development of this exhibit. See Building a Multitouch Wall Part 5 and you can work your way through the series. There’s information about all our partners on the project, the equipment used, and the design and engineering challenges we faced. As always, we welcome your feedback and questions.

The photo courtesy of Lindsay Digital. The video was shot by the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

We’ve received enormous interest in the MT55 Platform outside of North America. Thanks to a new universal power system, the Platform will soon be making it’s international debut. The newly integrated power system allows the MT55 Platform multitouch table to be used with a wide array of voltage, frequency, and electrical socket types, making it compatible with most international power standards.

Rated for 110V-240V use, the MT55 Platform is ready for nearly every modern voltage standard out-of-the-box. The power management and control system is housed in the base of the multitouch table, terminating at a universal three prong outlet that allows the table to connect a cord fitting most outlets (B, C, E, J, K, etc.).

The first universal MT55 Platform touch tables have already quietly shipped to select locations in Europe. The official roll-out will begin in September. Watch this blog and sign up for notification to learn when the MT55 Platform will become available in your region.

We’re moving! Six years (in New Mexico) and two studio spaces later, Ideum is on the move again. This time we are moving into a brand new building (still in Corrales) where will consolidate all of the things we do. We will have more space for our Web and custom exhibit development teams. We will also have expanded space for hardware and software prototyping; a lab! We’ll also have a new space for multitouch table assembly, testing, and shipping.

The new building also means more space for our GestureWorks team. Expect a few big announcements concerning the GestureWorks framework later this fall. Here are some of pictures of the space. There are more on our Flickr pages.