Multi-touch

Spain's Reactable Systems first blipped on our sonar in 2006 with the launch of the "seeing is believing" tabletop modular synthesizer. Development of the system has continued, and last week the company unveiled its latest intuitive, modular and portable iteration – the Live! S6 table.​

Touchpads with multi-touch support can have some pretty neat functionality. The Sensel Morph, however, is like a touchpad on steroids. In addition to multi-touch support, it is pressure-sensitive and can swap its top layer to become almost any type of controller.

Ideum has launched its fastest, most expandable, and most versatile multitouch table, the Pro Lab. The active 3D LED LCD touch display boasts a resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 pixels and sits atop a computer-packing pedestal with up to 24 terabytes of removable storage.

Although touchscreen controls are appearing in the dashboards of an increasing number of vehicles, they're still not something that one generally associates with economy cars. That may be about to change, however, as Continental has announced its "infrared curtain" system.

An experimental interface called the Dynamic Desktop combines real objects with the multi-touch technology in tablets and smartphones to make your desk and everything on it a dynamic, context-aware extension of your desktop computer.

Lenovo has used IFA 2014 to unveil the latest additions to its all-in-one tabletop PCs, the Horizon 2s and Horizon 2e. Packing 19.5- and 21.5-in displays respectively, the new devices bring a thinner lighter form factor to tabletop computing.

Tired of the waiter ignoring you? Perhaps you want to know a bit more about the dishes, such as how they're made and what's in them? Well, the Interactive Restaurant Technology (IRT) system might be for you. It replaces human waiters and paper menus with multitouch tables.

The man who killed the soul and humanity of pop music in the 1980s is now desperately trying to bring instrumental virtuosity back into the mainstream. Roger Linn's Linnstrument has as much feel and expression as an acoustic instrument, but can access all the wild sounds of today's synths.

New Mexico's Ideum has managed to shave over an inch and a half off the thickness of its Platform 55 display in time for the infoComm 14 trade show being held in Las Vegas this week. The dual boot prototype is being shown off at the booth of development partner 3M Touch Systems.

Dell has today announced two ruggedized additions to its Latitude series. Comprising a 12-inch laptop-tablet convertible and a 14-inch notebook, the Latitude Rugged Extreme series is built to withstand harsh outdoor conditions.

Ideum and 3M debuted an Android version of the Platform 46 Coffee Table at the Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas on February 12.

Swiss tech outfit Dizmo is raising funds to make collaboration a more tactile and versatile experience. Dizmo is an interface that lets users work together across different devices in the same digital space.