Can touch this?

As an adaptation of MC Hammer's smash hit Can't touch this runs through my head... I'm still wowed by this incredible advancement of technology.... touch.

Since I am not very good at computers - in fact on any given day you may hear me mutter "computers hate me!" in utter frustration - I am easily impressed by new technology - and this one really had me going.

My first intro to touch programs was actually in high school. My calculus teacher had something called a SMART Board. It was basically a touch sensitive blackboard hooked up to his computer. He used it much like a blackboard to draw functions, derive equations and pull up last class's notes. It was incredibly useful for learning, we could easily get electronic copies of notes we did in class, pull up old problems and look things up on the web.

Here is a youtube video about how to use it (warning, it's a smidgen blah...)



So flash forward a couple of years and Apple introduces the iPod touch and iPhone. Again... I'm impressed and when given the chance to hold one, proceed to play with all the "buttons" - even to this day.

However, when I saw a video about a touch table, my mind exploded.

Check out this news clip:



The table is completely touch sensitive and that's just the start. You could order pizzas on it, take pictures and without cables download the pictures directly to the table! WHAT?! Just as I had collected myself (and my jaw from the floor) I looked at the date of posting.... 2007. Two years ago?! How is it that two years later I haven't seen any of these tables commercially? Technology is adapting and being refined so quickly and prices normally drop within the first couple of years, I would've have assumed that I would've seen this somewhere already.

Here's another clip of the table that explores more of the nuts and bolts:




Has anyone seen them? Does anyone have one?

Also if we have devises that we can hear, see and touch... what's next? An iPod we can taste? Maybe an online menu we can smell?