News

Ideum MT2 multi-touch table for museums takes on Microsoft Surface

February 4, 2009

The MT2 Table supports multi-touch and multi-user interactions. According to a news release, it has a bright 50-inch diagonal surface with a high-resolution (1280 x 720) display, which is higher than Microsoft's Surface multi-touch table. The large display also makes it easier to facilitate multiple simultaneous visitors interacting with computer programs through the use of multi-touch gestures. Visitors can use hand gestures to manipulate images or media or to interact with computer-based programs.

"We've been working with museums for a decade and we wanted to create a platform where visitors could interact with museum content, programs and one another in new and meaningful ways," said Jim Spadaccini, director of Ideum. "The intuitive nature of multi-touch interaction, the large surface and low table height: all of these factors contribute to the visitors' experience. The table is both a physical and social platform, it does what the traditional computer kiosk cannot do."

The table, which stands 31 inches tall with heavy-duty locking casters, is wheelchair accessible and meets standard ADA requirements for height. The MT2 is also incredibly durable with a frame built of aircraft-grade aluminum and a surface of thick, tempered glass. All of the components of the MT Table are industrial grade and built to withstand the demands of busy museums, including hands-on science centers.

Ideum has partnered with Natural User Interface, a Swedish technology company specializing in multi-touch solutions to provide the base software package. Each table comes with NUI's Snowflake Software, a fast and reliable gesture recognition multi-touch software package. This software allows developers to create their own applications with Flash, C/C++/C#, Java, Python, and other programming languages.

Snowflake also comes with a set of basic applications: 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 MT2 table also includes TouchEarth (Google Earth with a multi-touch interface).

Ideum is currently developing custom software for The Don Harrington Discovery Center in Amarillo, Texas and Vulcan Park and Museum in Birmingham, Alabama. These museums will have the first two tables, with installations scheduled for March. The installation for Vulcan Park and Museum will include two multi-touch kiosks making it one of the first permanent exhibits in the world to use multi-touch technology throughout the gallery space.