Enhanced DViT technology supports Microsoft Windows 7 touch capabilities
Orlando, FL --- June 17, 2009 --- SMART Technologies demonstrates continued leadership in the touch technology industry with the announcement of new touch gestures, available through its patented DViT™ (Digital Vision Touch) technology. A leading innovator and manufacturer of touch technology embedded in a number of commercial products, SMART has developed gesture features that enable users to touch the screen with two or more fingers and perform tasks such as zoom, rotate and scroll quickly and easily. These new features can be used on the SMART Board™ interactive display frame, which supports the new multitouch capabilities of Microsoft’s Windows® 7 Release Candidate. Touch gestures build on SMART’s ongoing innovation, including recently announced developments such as the availability of Touch Recognition for SMART Board interactive whiteboards, the introduction of the SMART Table, the world’s first multitouch interactive learning center for early childhood education, and its global product category leadership in interactive whiteboards.
In making touch control an important element of the Windows 7 operating system, Microsoft is accelerating the development of touch-enabled computer interfaces and multitouch displays. Through continued research and development, SMART has enhanced its DViT technology and is working with Microsoft to support Windows 7 touch capabilities. The first SMART product to support a range of touch gestures in Windows 7 will be the SMART Board interactive display frame, which combines the high-resolution image quality of a plasma display and the precision of camera-based touch technology to transform a plasma display into an interactive collaboration tool. Touch gestures will enable users to quickly and intuitively navigate through applications, scroll through pages, right click and manipulate objects (by zooming, rotating, scaling and erasing them) from anywhere on the screen. SMART will be demonstrating touch gestures at InfoComm from June 17 to 19, 2009, in Orlando, Florida. Demonstrations will use Microsoft touch applications including Microsoft Surface™ Globe, Microsoft Surface Collage and Microsoft Surface Garden Pond.
“Touch capabilities are increasingly sought after, and the release of Windows 7 will certainly widen the community of users across all markets,” says Nancy Knowlton, SMART’s CEO. “The enhanced gestures feature is a natural extension for SMART, a company that has always focused on touch, and we will invest further in this area so that our products may continue to meet and exceed customer expectations.”
About DViT technology
SMART created its patented DViT technology as a breakthrough technology platform for touch-sensitive displays. DViT technology uses proprietary digital cameras and sophisticated software to determine the contact of a finger, stylus, pointer or other object on a display, enabling not only precise, intuitive touch control, but also superior image quality. DViT technology is a dramatic progression in touch-system development and requires no active layered screen because the digital cameras are in a bezel, which resides in the frame around the display, not in the surface. Cameras, situated in two or more corners of the display, communicate position information back to a digital signal processor that determines the exact point of contact. No special pens or tools are required to interact with the display, nor are special materials required on the touch screen, leaving the image crystal clear.
