A little more than a year ago when the first RENCI-built multi-touch table was brand spanking new, I remember trying it out with the excitement of an eight-year-old on Christmas morning. The table was an iPhone with the size stature of mom’s dining room table. The number of gestures that could be programmed into it seemed limitless.

But my latest experience with the multi-touch table was even better.  Why? Because the table, now located in a lab in the UNC Chapel Hill computer science department, has become much more than an interface that elicits “oohs” and “aahs” among geeks worldwide. It has proven to be a scientific tool.  And, as with other visualization technologies, it helps scientists take a fresh look at their work, often resulting in new insights and inspiration.

Two computer science professors—Dinesh Manocha and Ming Lin—worked with RENCI’s Jason Coposky to port their work to the multi-touch interface.  When I visited their lab in early December, the scientists and their grad students brimmed with enthusiasm about their research and the novelty of working with a different, more intuitive interface.

It’s one thing to talk about the potentials of a new technology—and as RENCI’s director of communications, I often do that. It’s so much more fulfilling when real researchers applaud that technology and its ability to further their work.  Manocha, who uses the table to display crowd simulations, says he now has an interface that’s more intuitive and more responsive, as he and his students develop new algorithms that could help emergency workers and the military understand the dynamics of crowds. (Watch video of demonstration)

Lin, who studies sound synthesis and develops algorithms that mimic the sounds of musical instruments, loves that the table allows her students to interact with their virtual instruments in a much more organic way. She envisions creating a virtual orchestra on the table as part of research that could develop better tools for acoustics analysis.

Playing the xylophone on the multi-touch table.

I’m always inspired when I get the chance to talk to scientists and feel some of the passion they have for their work. To know that RENCI has a role in supporting them and allowing them to reach their goals adds a little extra warm-fuzzy to this holiday season.

Find out more about the multi-touch table at UNC Computer Science in the story and video Research by touch.

Share