The TouchTable®.
If you want an incredible modern high tech coffee table - a touch table is it. The cost is still quite high, but we definitely want one of these for Christmas. Just imagine keeping track of your client legal cases or your sales force or your cash flow or your product chain or your investments by use of one of these things. We can already see a touch table in every law firm and corporate board room in the country, although the high-end income households will surely be among the first to get these things as the "newest toy". And we see a large market for this table among football coaches - for obvious reasons.
The above video from Wired Science at PBS shows the TouchTable from Touch Table, Inc. The touch table is a very serious information-focused toy which is already used for military analysis, military intelligence and for law enforcement purposes. TouchTable is essentially a very large touch-screen system on a table-like horizontal surface, which allows one or multiple users to navigate large amounts of data and information via software applications that visualize and analyze selected data and information - and allow touch navigation within that data. The TouchTable is the fantastic prerequisite, but equally fantastic software is also required.
In the video, Touch Table CEO Rocky Roccanova shows Wired TV's Ziya Tong how the TouchTable works and shows some stunning examples of its application to things like the question of whether Iran is building nuclear weapons, or how world air travel can be viewed in real time, or how city crime locations can be viewed and analyzed by police departments.
Owners of the table include such far off places as the City of Moscow.
For R&R (rest and relaxation), you can even convert TouchTable into a virtual pool table.
Here is what Touch Table Inc. writes about TouchTable TT45:
"TouchTable TT45
The TouchTable TT45 is a small group collaboration system for visualization, navigation and analysis of data. Functioning as a mobile presentation and input device, the TT45 displays data on a touch-sensitive table surface. People gather around the table and manipulate this displayed information using simple hand gestures.
TouchTables aid in decision making by replacing the traditional classroom style lecture environment with a shared group experience. When gathered around the table, everyone in the group has equal access to the displayed information and menu system allowing control of the discussion to flow naturally. This shared experience increases each participants understanding, resulting in faster, more confident decision making.
Additional TouchTables can be networked to allow synchronized remote collaboration. This means that different groups can connect to the network and share data over long distances. Each device on the network displays the same information and is updated concurrently. Control of the displayed information can be handed off as needed and shared among groups as the discussion warrants. This shared virtual space allows all groups of users to contribute, regardless of their physical location."
Hat tip to Dennis B.
