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City Wall Helsinki , Finland Helsinki, Finland The WAVE Report went to Helsinki, Finland to look at some of the latest technology in public space displays. This is CityWall. In the process we found much more and it is reflective of the market dynamics around touch technology.
CityWall CityWall was co-funded as part of the 6th Framework Research Program of the European Union (EU), through the IPCity project (FP-2004-IST-4-27571). The touchscreen technology and applications were developed by the Ubiquitous Interaction group at the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (HIIT). From this work a company spun out, MultiTouch Oy. The IPCity project began in 2006. The original intent was to create technology the public could use in large scale events which lasted only a short time (>10,000 people and 1 week or less). The initial concepts were based on creating small group communications on a mobile phone. But this shifted to a display based approach which could impact more individuals. With a large display it was clear that multitouch would be required. By 2007 a prototype was developed and a video shown at a IPCity project meeting. From this early research, and the response from the demo, a decision was made to do a larger project. The Eurovision Song Competition in Helsinki 2007 was supported. This was done with a large display located in the highest traffic area in Helsinki during the event. At the same time a small user group was formed to evaluate CityWall. A second group of ad hoc users was also observed. Individuals could down load pictures to Flickr and have those show up on CityWall. The user interface was kept very simple – touch, size and move. There is a timeline which allows users to scroll on the bottom of the screen and see the history of what has been added to CityWall. The focus of CityWall, at this point, is to encourage group interaction and to expand the personal experience of the event. Individuals found that they could show others what had happened during the event but at the same time some privacy concerns were expressed. Users found the CityWall fun and enjoyed it. It was also interesting that pictures were being posted from around the world on CityWall. A software application on the phone used in this effort was called Context Phone. Its foundation also came from research at HIIT. This technology then became the basis for the company Jaiku which was then acquired by Google. A paper describing this work was presented at MUM 2007.
Another recent paper described the user interactions on CityWall.
The outgrowth of this was that when the first videos of CityWall were posted on the net calls came in to HIIT. Potential customers wanted to know what was available and how much would it cost. Then over dinner the question was asked of the principals – should we start a company. The answer was yes and in 2007 it was formed – Multitouch Oy.
Multitouch Oy It was clear from the beginning that the technology used in CityWall could not be used in a commercial product. The images were created on a display surface with 2 projectors. These were XGA projectors and the net display was 2048 X 768. These projectors continually needed to be calibrated. An effort was begun to evaluate LCD panels – could IR be imaged through them? Yes was the conclusion; this would work but there were significant issues in image S/N and detection of the touch events. Over 12 months the hardware and software was developed. This entailed:
The result is an LCD module which can be combined with many other modules to make large displays. The refresh rate is 60Hz. The customer base and/or potential customers include:
The actual customers were not disclosed due to restrictions placed by the customers. It is expected that one will go public in the next few months. One customer was able to implement Flash support in only 3 days. Even the early work with customers has highlighted the desire by many to have more than the current VGA resolution in a single module. This is an advantage of the LCD panel approach in that higher resolutions can be readily supported. Work is currently being done on a Windows port of the software, however, many of the corporations are asking for Linux. It was stated that the current LCD design could operate in an outdoor environment – that is, the lighting conditions. Multitouch Oy business model is based on:
It was stressed that a company with limited experience could accomplish either (1) or (2) but this is challenging. From Multitouch’s perspective the display module has been designed so that it can be readily, and at low cost, be produced. There are two LCD modules available: 46in for 10900€ with PC and 32in for 5700€. These are both HD displays and include a PC, run time license and software applications. The WAVE Report met with the CEO of Multitouch Oy, Tommi Ilmonen.
Demonstration I saw a brief demonstration on two LCD touch panels which formed on continuous surface vertically mounted. The image quality was very good. The interaction was smooth but not as fluid as Perceptive Pixel, which is believed to be 100Hz or greater. The user interaction was simple by design, which has been driven by most of the applications to date. HIIT The work at HIIT is also going forward. There is a major effort to prepare a new CityWall like display for the City of Sciences Exhibition in Paris from November 14 – 16, 2008. This is a work in progress but the two team members I met with outlined the current plans.
This is an ambitious project in a short time. The new interface is highlighted on a recent YouTube video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IldDrCcZkZY
WAVE Comments There is nothing really profound in what either MultiTouch Oy or HIIT is doing. The value comes from creativity and rapid execution with modest resources. The imaging on the surface of the display is quite simple – it is only to support interaction with fingers. This has significant impacts. It enables interactive surfaces which are low cost, modular and scalable. But it is important to note that IR imaging is done with a Vision Engine as MultiTouch Oy described it. This is clearly their IP which makes the hardware implementation workable. It is not surprising that this focus on simple displays, simple interaction and low cost opens markets. For obvious reasons we were not able to explore this but the directions the company is taking with a number of customers was outlined. What was most important is that once a scalable hardware module is available this enables a concerted focus on software. It is here where customers are also making a contribution. Note the use of Flash as an authoring tool. We can only surmise that MultiTouch is a beginning. The barriers to entry are fairly low. Based on what MultiTouch said there is a market but this was not quantified. We expect other companies to build on this potential opportunity. |
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