MultiTouch Ltd. Transforms Tokyo's Graffiti Bar into First Fully Interactive Dining Experience

Helsinki, November 11, 2010 – MultiTouch, Ltd., developer of the world's first modular multi-touch LCD screen for large-scale displays, today announced the public opening of what is the largest hospitality multitouch display installation. It consists of seven 46-inch and seven 32-inch MultiTouch Cell LCD units set up as bar-top and lounge tables and two large wall projection screens. The innovative applications installed in Tokyo's Graffiti Bar employ a novel interface that includes interactive visual effects, a multitouch menu for bar patrons, and information capture on patron?s VIP cards and drink glasses.

MultiTouch worked closely with Green Light Productions on the Graffiti Bar installation, which officially opens today.   Located in Tokyo’s Roppongi area, the Graffiti Bar is targeted toward a high-end clientele, and seats 120 in a high-concept interactive art installation.

Central to the theme of the Graffiti Bar, which offers “artistic dining,” patrons can draw their own graffiti on the MultiTouch displays, and can browse drink and food menus, interact with their waiters, play games, and enjoy media content provided by the bar. Interactive special effects, including virtual champagne bubbles and lightning bolts, react to touch and objects placed on the tables. VIP cards placed on the MultiTouch displays will trigger exclusive VIP content. All content is remotely controlled from the MultiTouch Control Interface, located behind the bar.

“We live, work, eat, and sleep in a multi-screen world, and now we are expanding to a multi-user, multitouch screen environment, where we can manipulate information in a collaborative fashion, even when enjoying a cocktail,” said Hannu Anttila, vice president of sales for MultiTouch Ltd. “Tokyo Graffiti Bar is a template for the future of public information display, and how entertainment in restaurants and bars will be consumed.”

“Bars and restaurants have evolved in the past four decades from table screen implementations of videogames, such as Pong, to large-screen projection TVs and, of course, high-definition displays, for patron enjoyment. Now, the multitouch, multi-user display enables restaurateurs to deliver specialized, even individualized, content to patrons, and provide application which complement patron’s mobile applications,” said Mike Verweyst,   the owner of Green Light Productions. “Our clientele benefits from the MultiTouch displays as an active ingredient in their existing human interactions; we can generate an experience that is unparalleled for today’s bar patrons.”

Introduced to the global market in 2009, the MultiTouch Cell product family has been sold in more than 30 countries, and installed in some of the most prominent international venues, including the recent Wall of Chile installation at the Chilean Pavilion at the Expo 2010 Shanghai China. The Cell products are used for broadcast, retail, advertising, exhibitions, museums, education and design.

For more information, please visit www.multitouch.fi, as well as the MultiTouch YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/multitouchfi, and   www.twitter.com/multitouchfi for further MultiTouch updates.