HP Releases VantagePoint – 132 Inch Multi-Touch Screen

For those that have seen the movie Minority Report, the VantagePoint screen should look familiar. It's a big screen that works as an interactive device; sort of like the screen used by CNN to cover election results. The difference here though is that the VantagePoint system is being sold as a finished product to whoever wants one; other such touch-sensitive systems are custom made. Of course only those with pretty big piles of cash will qualify.

The editors at Wired magazine were recently offered a chance to see first-hand what HP has wrought, and have apparently come away impressed. The VantagPoint isn't just big, it's fast too. Faster than most normal sized touch screens.

Though technically, the VantagePoint isn't just one screen, its six LD4730G 47-inch Ultra-Micro Bezel screens connected together to work as a single unit. The whole thing is also connected to twin PC's to do the processing. The final result is an eleven foot by seven foot screen that can be used in virtually the same way as an Apple iPad; with one major difference. The VantagePoint recognizes up to 32 response points at the same time, whereas most iPads recognize just one. In practice this means that thirty two people could manipulate icons or images on the screen, at the same time. Providing each uses just one finger of course.

The folks at Slashgear got a close-up look at one of the systems too and came away equally impressed, though they don't believe many would buy such a system for fooling around at home. No, they say it's more likely the systems would be used by speakers on a stage (HP reps say the size chosen was based on average human height), or by sales people at demonstrations before large crowds.

One early customer, according to Wired, is the San Francisco 49's, who plan to use the system to help sell expensive seating in their new billion dollar stadium. They figure they can put together a truly awe-inspiring experience that will more than justify the $125,000 price tag as customers lay down their own cold hard cash for season tickets for luxury boxes.

Another nice feature of the system is that it runs Windows 7, which means users can run anything on the big screen that they could on a regular computer, which of course would include video, or streaming content from the web. And of course, if a customer gets bored, they can always bring up Angry Birds, which on such a system, would actually be life sized.