Open Source Multi-Touch Displays Comin' at Ya

by Guest Editor - May. 09, 2008Comments (2)

By Aaron Huslage

Multitouch display technology has been at the center of many a geek's attention since the release of the iPhone almost a year ago. The ability to combine computer vision, projector display technology and the electronics to control it all had been the provenance of big companies and university research labs.

Now Stefan Hechenberger and Addie Wagenknecht of New York-based NOR_/D have put together an open source alternative called Cubit. According to the company:

"CUBIT is an interactive surface for multitouch interactions. It was designed with the intention to redefine visual computing and depart from the mouse pointer paradigm."

The device is basically a PC, box, small projector, projection surface and some electronics to tie everything together. There is a QuickTime movie showing it on the left side of the Cubit page (update: after this post went up the QuickTime video appears to be locked--not sure yet if the locking is temporary).

This is a very similar design to Microsoft's Surface product (seen at left), which is now showing up in AT&T retail outlets. Surface, which has been in the works for years, is a multi-touch product from Microsoft developed as a software and hardware combination. Restaurants, hotels and many other types of businesses are expected to be customers for Surface.

The key to Cubit is the software, which NOR_/D has made available with an open source license. You can find more details on it at the company's site. In addition to a complete unit, the company is also selling a kit, called TouchKit that you can use to build your own.

The kits will be available for $800-$1480 in 3-6 weeks and can be ordered from the TouchKit page of the website. Hacking will commence shortly thereafter.