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TouchKit Brings Surface-Like Multitouch to the Nerdy Masses
Posted by John Herrman at 11:20 AM on August 28, 2008
Touchkit, a open source (software and hardware) multitouch kit designed by NOR_/D, has been announced at a US$1580 price point, or roughly 1/8th the cost of Microsoft's Surface table. That's not to say that the TouchKit is equivalent or even necessarily a competitor to Microsoft's offering, but it is theoretically capable of many of the same flashy tricks. The system must be hooked up to a separate computer, and also requires an external projector. As you can see in the video, there's not exactly a whole lot it can do out of the box, but the open source platform can be tweaked by anyone with a little knowledge of C++. Check out the gallery of the hardware and potential installations are their site. [Gizmag]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Anrui
Posted 11:52 AM 28/8/08
Cool. Now I can draw open source penises on it.
Anrui
PC+Mac Coexist
Posted 11:47 AM 28/8/08
Apple Event: New(er) iPhone
PC+Mac Coexist
alowishus
Posted 11:42 AM 28/8/08
@Crash Override 777: That's Dr. Octagon, recognize!
alowishus
ripfire
Posted 11:35 AM 28/8/08
@Crash Override 777: What? You actually expected more from open source? :P
ripfire
Moriya
Posted 11:34 AM 28/8/08
@CrashOverride777: That's "Earth People" by Dr. Octagon aka Kool Keith. The LP it's from is 12 years old, and in my opinion a genre-defining record. I don't want to jump to conclusions but I think it might just be you here.
Moriya
ripfire
Posted 11:34 AM 28/8/08
When will people learn than it's not about the hardware you need to one-up. It's all about the software.
ripfire
Earthslide
Posted 11:32 AM 28/8/08
@slucas: You can do that to lcd monitors and Tvs at Best Buy for free ... just press down really hard til you see black liquidy stuff around the tips ;)
Earthslide
morbo
Posted 11:31 AM 28/8/08
Multi touch of 3 it seems. awful need to be cool rap track. $1500 buys a lot of fingerpaint.
morbo
BiZarRroBALlmeR
Posted 11:29 AM 28/8/08
BTW shouldn't we be seeing MS's Surface version 2? Bigger and better than before.
BiZarRroBALlmeR
Crash Override 777
Posted 11:29 AM 28/8/08
Off topic I changed my AV it says it will change shortly but that was a day ago, also I edited my username to add spaces but only works when it feels like it?
Crash Override 777
Crash Override 777
Posted 11:26 AM 28/8/08
Wow is it me or has rap just get more lamer?
Crash Override 777
slucas
Posted 11:26 AM 28/8/08
Thats cool and all but for $40 you can do about the same with a wii remote and a projector? [www.ted.com]
link to video
slucas
Bokusatsu_Tenshi
Posted 12:21 PM 28/8/08
Wow, that was... pretty boring.
But I did manage to watch it... after turning the sound off.
Bokusatsu_Tenshi
arekkusu82
Posted 12:20 PM 28/8/08
"little knowledge of C++", really?? How little??
arekkusu82
Jon B.
Posted 12:56 PM 28/8/08
Would have wow-ed a few years ago, then multi-touch devices came out, and now this stuff is pretty standard, still cool though
Jon B.
robpruitt
Posted 1:12 PM 28/8/08
PS: By Tablets I mean Tablet PC's not the tablet for artwork to replace the mouse. Although, that is better than this technology also.
robpruitt
robpruitt
Posted 1:10 PM 28/8/08
The touch technology is the sooo lame regardless of who makes it. How accurate is your big clumsy finger compared to the 1 pixel fingerprint of the mouse pointer? People don't even want tablets much less a piece of furniture you have to convince your significant other to let you put in the living room.
Does anyone here really want to touch and rub all over their PC in order to operate it rather than because they just want to? ;)
robpruitt
LaynerzT
Posted 1:53 PM 28/8/08
I have that at my high school. Every classroom has that now instead of a white board. It's called SmartBoard.
You should look it up on youtube. It's so cool and fun.
LaynerzT
Emiat
Posted 3:00 PM 28/8/08
@LaynerzT: They also are useless and never work properly and are really dodgy on how it recognizes where the pen is been pressed.
Emiat
devilonsteroids
Posted 3:15 PM 28/8/08
@CrashOverride777: Dude! Half Shark, Half Man, Half Alligator!!
devilonsteroids
alowishus
Posted 5:09 PM 28/8/08
@devilonsteroids: We should feed him a rat burger!
alowishus
shockwaver
Posted 11:29 PM 28/8/08
@LaynerzT & @Emiat: Yes, they are. The college I went to had it decked out in every room, and for the two years I was there, I saw it actually work 2 maybe 3 times. It needed to be constantly calibrated, and it would just fail for no reason. But it was a -really- good idea (that is, until some dumbass used whiteboard markers on them)
shockwaver
Mammoth
Posted 4:52 AM 29/8/08
@LaynerzT: Your SmartBoard doesn't have multitouch.
Mammoth
Kanidia
Posted 5:27 AM 29/8/08
Wow the rap is so bad.
Kanidia
nitromic
Posted 8:14 AM 29/8/08
WTF are you paying all that money for if you still need an external projector and a computer. Seems like a waste to me. Might as well save the cash for the real thing, not some half-ass version. Also to the guy above, yes the Wiimote can "simulate" that style of thing, but it still sucks, and doesn't work entirely right.
nitromic