Now however, multi-touch technology is so prevelant in everyday life that not only do people instinctively touch any screen that they see is a public environment, but they also expect to be able to pinch, rotate and use all of the features that they find on their phones and MP3 players.Ģ011 will clearly be a big year for multi-touch kiosks, with major corporate brands such as Vodafone already getting in on the action by installing the cumbersome Microsoft Touch Table across many of its stores.
5 years ago when I first got into the industry every kiosk that was sold had a bold “Touch Here” sticker, and was often accompanied for the first couple of weeks by a member of staff inviting people to use the touchscreen facilities. With larger multi-touch screens only just coming to the market, the kiosk industry is playing catch up. Why limit kiosk gaming to an individual player when a group of friends can gather around a large screen and interact simultaneously? Why show your customers a basic image of your product when you can offer them the ability to explore and interact with it via the very latest in touchscreen technology? Multi-touch gives you the power to provide a more engrossing user experience whether promoting a product, providing a gaming solution, offering way-finding services or even presenting a virtual tour or point of information. The potential for Multi-touch applications is limitless, with particular interest coming from the gaming industry and retail. When compared to current touchscreen technology which only allows one touch at a time, multi-touch is a revelation and opens up a whole world of new applications and interactive possibilities. For anyone that owns or has used an Ipad or equivilant Touchscreen tablet, this has meant a massive leap in functionality across the board, from playing digital instruments such as the excellent Synth Station app, to pinch resizing pictures, intuitively browsing the web and playing incredible games with up to 4 players touching the screen at once. Multi-touch technology allows one or more users to use multiple finger touches simultaneously. But what exactly is it and how can markets such as retail and gaming use it to revitalise their existing kiosk solutions? Multi-Touch technology has been receiving a huge amount of attention recently with the emergence of Multi-touch phones, MP3 players and interactive tablets, all of which offer the user a unique opportunity to interact with touch screens in a manner that is both innovative and intuitive.