M-TABLE
Multi-Touch Table
Contact
Gavino Paddeu, valorisation@crs4.it
Challenge
Due to their ergonomics and extreme versatility, interactive tables are ideal for the creation of applications and installations where the control and collaboration are the prevailing characteristics. The direct manipulation of graphical objects, the use of both hands, the ability to accommodate multiple users arranged around these devices, allow even the less experienced people to establish a natural interaction with the digital representations of the information, and, at the same time, a series of specially designed interfaces encourage and facilitate collaborative and social interactions, activating the dynamics that underlie exploratory, communicative and manipulative skills of human beings. Interactive tables are spreading as a place of gathering and aggregation, where multiple users can share and exchange information, using a single, familiar and ergonomic device, to pursue personal or group tasks. Their versatility also allows to create permanent or portable installations, depending on the needs and the context of application, particularly useful in museums, exhibition and trade fair.
Overview
M-Table is a software to create interactive tables, based on optical technology. It is part of the X-Places framework and therefore can be used in any application based on it. Also it is able to recognize shapes and objects resting on the table surface (glasses, cups, telephones, etc.), allowing to create applications that interact with both real and digital objects.
Innovative features
- able to recognize objects resting on its surface;
- able to distinguish between gestures performed with single fingers and with the whole hand;
- full support for any type of digital content: images, videos, web pages, 3D models, maps.
Potential users
Teachers and students in schools. Visitors, guides and curators in museums and exhibitions.
Impact sectors
e-Learning - Tourism (museums, expos, fairs) - Infotainment - Trade (interactive shops) - Citizens services - Home automation.