I found infromation about the TerrainTable on the site of defense mega-contactor Northrop Grumman. TerrainTable creates scale 3 dimensional maps on a table top. Mechanical pins in the table distort a silicone skin to create the terrain, color and detail are acheived through an overhead projector, apparently that stretchy skin responds to touch. There is actually very little detail on the Northrop Gummans site but there is a link to this PDF. — source
This is a multitouch screen with multiple configurations, some of which are shown in this video. Currently there are two models available, the multiscreen TT84 and the single screen TT45. The Touch Table’s primary use appears to be tactical planning for government disaster and civil and military response teams. TouchTable was created by by Applied Minds (more on them). In this video the announcer quotes a $65k pricetag for the table, although I’m sure the majority of that goes toward some very expensive software. There is exetended user footage from a conference here. It looks like TouchTable is a gesture interface engine and at least the TT84 screen is a top down projection screen.
Billed as an “interface free media player” although that is not accurate it does’t have a traditional computer interface. In fact it does not even have a screen. To interact the user places an object (a plastic horse seen in the picture) on the table. The table then reads and RFID chip in the object and plays a media file, either a sound file or a projected video. Images of the prototype look very rough, but an interactive media player with no visible computer interface could be very intuitive and fun. — source
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