Jeff Han’s Amazing Multi-Touch Display System

The current issue of Fast Company has a great article “Can’t Touch This” by Adam L. Penenberg about Jeff Han, who with his company Perceptive Pixel, is developing an amazing multi-touch display system that could revolutionize how people interact with machines and work with information. For years systems like this have been featured in sci-fi films, but now it looks like they might be close to reality.

Until now, the touch screen has been limited to the uninspiring sort found at an ATM or an airport ticket kiosk–basically screens with electronic buttons that recognize one finger at a time. Han’s touch display, by contrast, redefines the way commands are given to a computer: It uses both movement and pressure–from multiple inputs, whether 2 fingers or 20–to convey information to the silicon brain under the display. Already, industries and companies as diverse as defense contractor Lockheed Martin, CBS News, Pixar, and unnameable government intelligence agencies have approached Han to get hold of his invention. And, no surprise, he has formed a startup company to market it, Perceptive Pixel.

Here’s Jeff’s talk at TED 2006 featuring an earlier version of his system.