Ideum announced a “multitouch wall” that responds to as many as 32 simultaneous touches and will support Linux in March. The MT65 Presenter has a 65-inch screen with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution, a 2.2GHz Core i7-2720QM processor, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD (solid state disk), and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 graphics card, according to the company.

We've recently seen a number of interesting PCs with giant touchscreens — suitable for institutions or for the ultimate man cave, should you be so lucky. Most have been designed to lie flat like a table or desk, and include Ideum's own MT55HD, Exo PC's Exodesk, and the Microsoft Surface-equipped Samusung SUR40. Most recently, we encountered the MultiTouch MT550W7, which can lie flat or act as part of a multiple-unit video wall.

According to Ideum, its new MT65 Presenter (below) is big enough to quality as a "wall" all on its own. Measuring 63 x 40 x 4 inches, the 185-pound device has a "vandal-proof" frame and a screen that measures 65 inches diagonally, the company says.

Ideum's MT65 Presenter
(Click to enlarge)

Like the earlier MT55HD, the MT65 has a "solid-state optical" multitouch system that supports up to 32 simultaneous inputs. Resolution (1920 x 1080 pixels) and brightness (500-nit) are the same as before, but contrast ratio is said to have improved to an incredible 9,000,000:1.

Featuring a surface with tempered glass 3mm thick, the MT65 contains a "Sandy Bridge" Core processor (specifically, the i7-2720QM, with quad-cores, a 2.2GHz base clock speed, and a 3.3GHz TurboBoost speed), 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD, according to Ideum. The device is further equipped with an Nvidia GeForce GTX480 graphics processor, connected via PCI Express 2.0 x16 and with its own 1GB of dedicated memory, the company adds.

According to Ideum, the device also includes an HDMI input, hidden USB 2.0 ports, plus 802.11b/g/n, Ethernet, and Bluetooth connectivity. There's also an integated HD webcam with autofocus and Carl Zeiss optics, the company says.

Ideum notes that a Linux version of the MT65 will be available in March; but for now, the system can run any touch-enabled Windows 7 application via an installed copy of Windows 7 Professional. In order to aid development of customized, site-specific software, the device also ships with a copy of the GestureWorks software development kit — designed to work with Adobe's Flash and Flex — and a license for the open source multitouch-enabled exhibit components found at www.openexhibits.org.

According to Open Exhibits, such components include:

• Mask Image Viewer — This multitouch module gives the ability to view interactive masked images. It uses two images and a shaped mask to dynamically mask sections of one image using the second. Users can pan around the mask using the drag gesture, zoom and rotate. Additionally the image itself can be dragged, scaled and rotated using the gestures on the image frame.
• Panoramic Viewer — The PanoramicViewer is a module that uses the AWAY3D API to create interactive high resolution zoomable 360 degree panoramic viewing windows. Multiple touch object windows can independently display individual panoramic views with different sizes and orientations.
• Live Video Viewer — The LiveVideoViewer module can be used to display live web camera video. The video feed viewing area can be resized and dragged about the stage with each web cam or live video feed acting as an independent multitouch object.

• Collection Viewer — The Collection Viewer is a stand-alone media viewing application. It can use any combination of the six Open Exhibits core modules (Flickr Viewer, Key Viewer, Video Viewer, YouTube Viewer, Image Viewer and GMap Viewer) to create a rich application with image, video, and mapping objects and a customizable onscreen keyboard.

Jim Spadaccini, CEO of Ideum, stated, "The MT65 Presenter is perfect for public spaces, [since] it has a huge LCD display that's over 2.5 times larger than Microsoft's Surface 2.0. It is also more than three times faster than the Surface and can work in just about any lighting environment."

Further information

Ideum's MT565 Presenter reportedly costs under $17,500 and appears to be available now. More information may be found on the MT65 Presenter Product Page.

Jonathan Angel can be followed at www.twitter.com/gadgetsense.

This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.