Want a Surface for $3,200?

mTouch: An affordable multi-touch web table

by John Biggs on May 25, 2010

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pd_4TYb-Z4&w=500&h=417]

It’s hard out here at Disrupt for gadget geeks, but we just got lucky. Merel Technologies is showing off a very cool multi-touch web table that uses gesture recognition, object recognition, and multi-user multi-touch to create a new way to interact with media and kiosk apps.

The best thing? It costs $3,200 for the 32-inch model and $4,200 for the 42-incher.

The table is made by Merel Technologies in New York and it uses a stacked multi-touch layer (looks like IR) along with an LCD TV to display the interface. A built-in PC runs the whole thing and you can tear it down to create a coffee-table sized device. You can also customize colors.

Interestingly, the gear is assembled in New York.

The goal here, it seems, is to allow customers access to multi-touch displays for not much money. It’s no Surface, but the company is working on an App Store which allows you to browse devices via Bluetooth, browse photos and classifieds, or even access video and restaurant menus right from your table. We saw something similar in iTable, which was a little more PC and a little less Surface — but also going for the lower price point.