I’ve just come across the latest on an emerging technology which I think has great potential to deliver major improvements to the user experience for a broad range of products and usage situations. The technology in question is Multi-Touch Screens. If you have seen the movie, Minority Report or used an iPod Touch you will already have some insight about the new way this technology might engage your senses in future.

One company, Perceptive Pixel Inc. has seriously researched the way light interacts with with the users fingers when they touch an acrylic screen and can use this information to identify finger position and even detect different pressures exerted onto the screen.

To create a signal, LEDs bounce light through the acrylic sheet. No light escapes. But if a finger is placed against the face (below), light will scatter off it toward the sensors. Also, a pressure-sensitive coating flexes when pressed firmly or lightly, making the scattered fingertip signal appear slightly brighter or dimmer, which the computer interprets as more or less pressure.

This technology is now being used by early adopters in information and interaction intensive activities such as intellence gathering and processing for the CIA and by news anchors at CNN news to help explain detailed information on the Presidential primaries. Looking ahead, the technology is expected to find a home in graphically intense businesses such as energy trading and medical imaging. Perceptive Pixel don’t seem to talk about price at this stage, which means the technology is currently still quite niche. Here is a demo video of the system in use. It does seem to be quite cool.

On the other hand, there is Microsoft Surface, a kind of interactive table. This system is being used in hotels and bar complexes to create in Microsoft’s words “uniquely personalized and engaging social experiences”. Their most ambitious is “flirt” which is all about basically flirting and chatting up semi-remotely. There are other applications, such as interactive games and a mixology package which helps you to design your own coctails. Customers will be able to order food and drink by using the interactive display. Other retail applications will allow customers in T-Mobile USA’s retail stores to compare different cell phone models by simply placing the phone on top of a surface screen; tags on the undersides of the phones will cue the system to display price, feature and phone plan details. Other Microsoft software will allow a wireless-enabled digital camera, when placed on a surface computer, to upload its photographic content to the computer without a cable.

First-generation surface systems are priced from $5,000 to $10,000. As with most electronic items, the company expects the price to decline as production volume increases. Microsoft says Surface computers should be available at consumer prices in three to five years. This means this sort of technology could be making regular appearances in people’s homes by then.

This is where things start to get interesting, as the price comes down, application and use of the system will inevitably become more widespread, in my view allowing consumers and users easy access to far more information than is possible now. This could have a profound impact on the retail and point of delivery experience for consumers and will really open up the way that brands communicate and interact.

This means that if your business has anything to do with creating consumer experiences, you need to start considering the impact this technology might have on your future business. Although in some ways this technology seems still to be a solution seeking a problem, I can already think of a number ways it could be used to enhance brand communication and I would seriously recommend prototyping potential applications now rather than later.