Well here’s the first multi-touch, multi-user device for teaching early childhood skills. Like the surface, you can drag things around the surface and play word and picture games with multiple people just by dragging images around the screen.
The table launches on Thursday and will cost an actually amazingly inexpensive $7,000.
• What is the SMART Table? It has multitouch, multiuser capability, it has gesture recognition and it’s really customizable.
• What does the SMART Table do for learning? Students use their hands to complete interactive learning activities and games, encouraging collaboration. They develop skills in areas like reading, counting and visual spatial awareness.
• How much will it cost? Between US$7,000 – US$8,000.
• Why should you care? SMART shipped the first touch sensitive SMART Board interactive whiteboard in 1991. Around the world millions of teachers and students use SMART products on a daily basis and just recently we shipped our millionth SMART Board interactive whiteboard. Now the SMART Table is around the corner – the next big thing in learning technology.
SmartTech, the creator of the table system, is well-versed in gesture recognition thanks to their Smart Board whiteboard that scans images drawn on a whiteboard and prints them on demand. This isn’t a Surface product. Instead, it uses Smart’s DVIT (Digital Vision Touch) system to watch for fingers on the screen.
SMARTTablerelease – Get more Business Documents
Would like to see Edusim on that thing (search edusim on google).
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$7000??? hope this peace will be going cheaper in the next coming years ;)
This looks pretty impressive. I’ve seen tons of “open source” DYI multi-touch tables in action and they all seemed to be limited in functionality and not great in build quality. Good to see that a hardware manufacturer jumps into the multi-touch table game. And those kids really look like they have fun.
I like the “The Hudsucker Proxy” reference =)
At first I thought this was something created for your child but as I kept hearing student the price became more realistic.
It would be very nice to prototype a similar version to be utilized for your kids at home.
Amazing piece of equipment that makes me want to go back to school.
SMART has been making multi-touch wall displays forever, and now they’re moving into tabletops. They’ve got a good group of people, are doing huge sales, and are actually way ahead of Microsoft in this market.
(Hi Ed, Mark, Cathy, etc. at SMART-central)
this is indeed smart!
seems to me a good deal. waiting to when it comes to india ,
I work at a school that uses a lot of SMART products, basically because the ass’t headmaster really likes them, and I can honestly say they’re uniformly poorly-made, the software is buggy and unreliable, and their support is less than stellar — calling them guarantees a 15-minute wait on hold while they play you not music, but a series of advertisements for their products.
I would pass on this one and wait for Surface to be worthwhile.
I have worked with a SMART Board for years and have found the exact opposite. The software has improved greatly over the years – SMART has added new fun features. My kids love it. Funny how one person’s experience can be so different from another’s. I think this Table looks great.
@Alex. Yes, because nothings says quality, reliable, bug-free product like Microsoft. Hopefully the Surface will come preloaded with Vista and be accompanied by a free Zune!
That is an amazing learning tool. And best of all no mess when doing art and stuff. Kids nowadays have some really great technology literally at their fingertips.
This is amazing piece of technology. Once it becomes a standard in classrooms across the USA, I envision a explosion of learning apps from 3rd parties.
As I am in a Masters program for Technology in School, I hope these fall in price by the time I graduate and get a few for my first school.
Saw some pix of Jeff Han of Perceptive Pixel and some Microsoft Surface developers doing some serious ooh-ing, ahh-ing and nail-biting over the Smart Table at a conference in Amsterdam a few weeks back.
http://flickr.com/photos/macbosse/2911432339/in/set-72157607729568121/
is that avilable in England ? i could not find it here in London .