DiamondTouch
Published by Sierra Monica B., on June 14th, 2008 12:57 pm, in the categories: Gadgets
"I am excited to be able to bring the DiamondTouch table out of the lab incubator so that we can invest in marketing and new product development," said Adam Bogue, President of Circle Twelve. "With products that we have available for sale today and others planned for the near future, Circle Twelve is well positioned to capitalize on the growing demand in tabletop computing."
Circle Twelve provides multi-user hardware and software for small groups focused o collaboration, and it has announced the exclusive license of DiamondTouch table and the agreement with Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs, where the product was invented in 2001.
The high-end table has an open API and SDK so customers to be able to develop new application software. The included mouse emulator and on-screen keyboard allows users to work with all computer software right on it.
DiamondTouch integrates an array of antennas located in the touch-sensitive surface, and each of these sends unique signals. Users sit on chairs with receivers connected to them via the chair, and when one of them touches the table antennas send small amounts of signal via the body to the receiver.
The table measures 32 inches or 42 inches in diagonal, as it comes in 2 models.
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World's first? Hmmmm.... the Microsoft Touch Table is already available in some Las Vegas casinos.
It was the first invented, not the first available.
DiamondTouch was invented in 2001 and first available for sale in 2006. You still can't buy MS Surface.
Diamondtouch is multitouch. Meaning, if N people touch it, it knows the distinction and keeps track of N separate threads of action. This means that if you write somethign and then scribble somethign again, it associates both actions with you, while if your friend Mark does the same *at the same time*, it associates both actions with Mark.
The Microsoft table is not even *close*.
That said, MS hired away the Diamondtouch inventor from MERL for a gigormous bucketload of money. So expect to see the multitouch feature on the MS tables soon too.
I've tried to compare both tables in a new article to make things more clear. You can read it here.
The product idea for Surface (Touch Table) was initially conceptualized in 2001 by Steven Bathiche of Microsoft Hardware and Andy Wilson of Microsoft Research :)))) Lord knows who came with the idea first :P How about some prices for the DiamondTouch models?
If you intend to purchase a standard DiamondTouch table it would cost you around $10K but the price varies depending on the customization level which you'd have to discuss with the company directly.
We plan to write an article comparing Microsoft's Surface with DiamondTouch so if you are interested to find out more details about them you could subscribe to our newsletter via "Get email delivery" in the sidebar.