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3M Says Its Multi-Touch System Means Almost No Lag

Posted by timothy on from the so-why-don'tcha-marry-it? dept.

jonniee writes "3M has rolled out a 22-inch digital display capable of 20-finger multi-touch input with less than 6 millisecond response time. The monitor incorporates 3M's Projected Capacitive Technology based on mutual capacitance operation theory. The result produces a silky smooth response that has almost no lag in execution."

25 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. Digital, Indeed! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...20-finger multi-touch input

    Wow! Does that mean you can use your toes for input as well as your fingers?

    1. Re:Digital, Indeed! by Fluffeh · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ...20-finger multi-touch input

      Wow! Does that mean you can use your toes for input as well as your fingers?

      How about two people using a screen at the same time when talking about something on the screen. Both are turning objects that are being rendered, to view different angles and the like.

      Seems that 20 inputs for a 22 inch screen is the most fingers that would be able to realistically get to it... Any more than two people huddling around the same screen would mean it needs to be significantly bigger in size than 22 inches.

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    2. Re:Digital, Indeed! by TuringTest · · Score: 3, Funny

      How about two people using a screen at the same time when talking about something on the screen.

      That would require having someone physically at the same place. Like inviting a friend to his basement, or something. Not going to happen soon.

      --
      Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
    3. Re:Digital, Indeed! by cybereal · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Forget two people, think bigger. Stitch 6 of these together, mount them into a conference room table, and use them for planning meetings. Why do you need 20 touch inputs per screen? Well you never know when everyone is going to go for the same screen portion at once. If this can be done with minimal or no bezel, it finally makes tabletop screens practical (for large companies).

      --
      I read the script, and I think it would help my character's motivation if he was on fire. -Bender
  2. Thank God. by RightSaidFred99 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now I can finally use both my fingers and toes to play games on my 22" monitor!

    Still not perfect, though. I really need 21 point for reasons I won't go into.

    1. Re:Thank God. by clickety6 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Still not perfect, though. I really need 21 point for reasons I won't go into.

      The only thing worse than a smart-arse is a clever-dick !

      --
      ----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
    2. Re:Thank God. by Cow+Jones · · Score: 4, Funny

      So we meet at last...
      Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.

      --

      Ah, arrogance and stupidity, all in the same package. How efficient of you. -- Londo Mollari
  3. Mistake in article by Capena · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They say that "one of the limitations of devices like Android and iPhone is the sampling of only two active points" but the iPhone can sample 5 points.

    The iPad can actually do 11 touches. Feel free to speculate on what part is the 11th finger :)

    1. Re:Mistake in article by gandhi_2 · · Score: 3, Funny

      A few years ago, you would get yelled at for touching someone's screen. Imagine the furor in the office if someone did it with the "11th finger".

      --
      THL phish sticks
  4. 3M sure does a lot! by pablo_max · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I am really amazed that this company is able to do so many different thing. From post-it notes to medical equipment. Not bad for a company that started in 1902 selling minerals to the east.

    1. Re:3M sure does a lot! by Vintermann · · Score: 5, Interesting

      They also made some great boardgames back in the day.

      I suspect they were the real-world inspiration for ACME corporation in Looney Tunes.

      --
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    2. Re:3M sure does a lot! by tpholland · · Score: 5, Interesting

      A lot of it is down to the famous 15 percent rule--the idea that their researchers and engineers are free to spend 15% of their time pursuing their own ideas.

      Some of the younger developers at our place are in awe of Google having "invented" the whole one day a week innovating thing, and are shocked that some of the less cool corporations were doing this back in the sixties.

  5. This will be great for my mutant 20 fingered kids by bradrum · · Score: 3, Funny

    If I survive the impending nuclear apocalypse, my 20 fingered mutant zombie offspring will be the ultimate power users. I can't wait!

  6. 20 times more fingerprints than before by Joce640k · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Good luck being able to read text on that...

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    No sig today...
  7. 20 Fingers... by frrrrrspl · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...ought to be enough for anybody.

  8. Latency by Barny · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well, on the plus side its only 6 times more lag than my mouse and keypad gives me, a lot better than consoles but still, not quite there yet :)

    That and there's only so many games that support touch, let alone multi finger touch, but of course world of goo, crayola physics and plants vs zombies will be just as playable on this as on my little hp tablet.

    Oh, and RTS of course, but keep a keyboard handy for shortcuts (sins of a solar empire comes to mind as the most "zomg this is the future" game you could show off with).

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    ...
    /me sighs
  9. Re:Multi-touch. by furgle · · Score: 2, Funny

    Agree, The images looks dirty with all those hands reaching out to touch part of the monitor. The monitor will have fingerprint stains that will never quite come off, signs of an experience it will never forget. For really dirty action get two of those monitors together for some: Hot screen on screen action. -- you know like the M.C. Escher drawing, but with 20 fingers from each monitor.

  10. Re:Why? by Aeternitas827 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yet.

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  11. Don't make fun of the 3M engineers too much... by ericvids · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Assuming you can set the screen down flat, you can do a lot of multiplayer games with this. Like duet piano, or playing Magic the Gathering with two players (and "tapping" virtual cards couldn't be any more realistic too!)

    --
    Pet peeve: Profane people propagating perfunctory pedantry.
  12. For Reference... by tobiah · · Score: 4, Informative

    about 150ms for instinctive (spinal/stem) response, 300ms for a conscious(cortical) response, 400ms to be aware of what you decided to do.

    --
    "The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool" - Jane Wagner -
    1. Re:For Reference... by w0mprat · · Score: 2, Funny

      64000ms for comment response to think of something funny to say.

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  13. a multi-doctor usage dispay by grag · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Instead of having several screens for one display, a large touch display can be divided into several touch screens for a number of doctors at one time. Just proposing an idea for hospitals.

  14. Huh? by ceraphis · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I was under the impression that iDevices could handle more than two inputs at a time? The first paragraph mentions that only up to a pinch is polled at a time?

  15. Re:Two things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    1) Don't 3M make those?

  16. lazy surfer by stimpleton · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It is Friday 10:25pm for me, after had week at work, with a few beers under my belt.

    Reading this story I have noticed my own user habits. My mouse cursor can move from one side to other of my 24" screen in about 1.5 inches mouse movement. I click links.Mouse wheel up and down.

    I doubt I could accept using my hand to move over 24 " of screen. In fact I just emulated it, holding my hand to the screen, then moving 20 inches to a link that interested me.

    To much effort. Do not want.

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