[syadasti]

Multitouch pioneer Jazzmutant / Stantum makes cocky three finger pan from past to future of input
By Sean Hollister posted Apr 15th 2010 9:29PM

Before the iPhone, Microsoft Surface or even Jeff Han's famous 2006 demonstration at TED, a commercial multitouch display already existed. It's a customizable music control surface called the Jazzmutant Lemur, and it dates back to at least 2004. Under the new name Stantum, Jazzmutant's touchscreens continue to impress, and now that its groundbreaking original finally has a potential competitor in the iPad, company co-founder Guillaume Largillier has granted Create Digital Music a sizable interview to comment on the future of the technology. Amidst jabs at Apple for developing a solution only a "Neanderthal" could love, the co-founder hints that the $2000 Lemur might finally see a price drop, and that the company's decided to license their tech to other multitouch tablet manufacturers. Be sure to bring your table salt before hitting our source link, as the second half of the piece is an editorial very much in Stantum's favor, but you might hold off on the full pinch -- it's a pretty good read nonetheless.

A few users of the Lemur, you may have heard of them:

# Björk (during her 2007-08 Volta tour)
# Daft Punk (used 2 during their 2007 tour, and seen using 4 Lemurs on stage during their 2008 Grammy Awards performance)
# Justice (used during their 2008 tour, using 4 Lemurs on stage to control Ableton Live and lights)
# Nine Inch Nails (Trent Reznor, keyboardist Alessandro Cortini and drummer Josh Freese)
# Alexander Hacke
# Para One
# The Glitch Mob
# Richie Hawtin
# Ryuichi Sakamoto
# Jonathan Harvey
# Deadmau5
# Matthew Herbert
# Modeselektor
# Pfadfinderei
# M.I.A (used during her 2007-2008 tours)
# Hot Chip (Felix Martin)
# Mike Relm
# Ugress
# Emilie Simon
# Stephan Bodzin
# Martin Gretschmann

Before commercial products way back in 1985 a Canadian team invented capacitance (rather than optical) multitouch and later in 1991 Pierre Wellner's "Digital Desk" had pinch motions and multi-finger support:

Stantum SlatePC Prototype Videos, circa 2009:

Engadget - Stantum multitouch Slate PC prototype hands-on

 

[Da Peach]

A shame it never really took off for those other folks.

But if it's good enough for Bjork, it's sure a s sh!t good enough for me.

 

[syadasti]

A shame it never really took off for those other folks.

But if it's good enough for Bjork, it's sure a s sh!t good enough for me.

Plus its another great thing from Canada like RIM's push email which was the killer app that caused the initial explosion in the smartphone market

 

[dump]

Yes, multi-touch has been around for a long time... and theorized for far longer than that. Sometimes it takes a company like apple that has the design, tech, manufacturing, distribution, etc to bring it to the mass market. His Neanderthal comment makes him look like an ass.

In general, it sounds a bit like sour grapes. I don't get his attack on "nostalgia." My love of (many) classic goods comes not from nostalgia, but an understanding of real quality - something that is increasingly difficult to find in the disposable, consumption-obsessed society of today.

I recall seeing an early production Lemur unit many years ago - they were demoing one at a Monolake performance. I recall the price was around $3K, and the applications were pretty limited to programmers only. In the past year or two, they dropped it to $2K. Still quite out of reach of most musicians.

 

[syadasti]

Stantum touchscreen technology does make Apple's hardware look rudimentary or "Neanderthal" which is saying a lot given Stantum much more limited resources.

In general, it sounds a bit like sour grapes. I don't get his attack on "nostalgia." My love of (many) classic goods comes not from nostalgia, but an understanding of real quality - something that is increasingly difficult to find in the disposable, consumption-obsessed society of today.

Apples MO is to purposely leave out basic functionality and force obsolesce for repeat purchases from people who find that acceptable in a so-called "premium" product. So you shouldn't admire Apple either...

 

[dump]

Apples MO is to purposely leave out basic functionality and force obsolesce for repeat purchases from people who find that acceptable in a so-called "premium" product. So you shouldn't admire Apple either...

Who says I do? I'm with you there. The only apple hardware I own is a 3-year old macbook pro. The rest is software.

The real promise of devices like the iphone or ipad in my mind is have one solid piece of hardware that you keep for the long term, and software you update. When things break, the unit is serviceable. It drives me up the wall to think of all the waste involved when people will pitch a perfectly good device, just to get the "upgraded" version... when 90% of the internals are exactly as the original device and in perfectly good working condition!

This line of thinking doesn't mix very well with the short-sighted way business is structured in the US unfortunately.

I've been on the same mobile phone since 2005 and have no intention of replacing it anytime soon. When the battery wore out and wouldn't hold its charge, I got a replacement for $10. The original 512MB card ended up not being enough to hold the music I wanted to listen to, so I swapped in a 4GB card. This is the kind of thing I like, and will happily pay for. As good as some apple products are, they generally will not do this to keep you spending (wasting) money... I have a hard time supporting this behavior.

 

[syadasti]

The real promise of devices like the iphone or ipad in my mind is have one solid piece of hardware that you keep for the long term, and software you update. When things break, the unit is serviceable. It drives me up the wall to think of all the waste involved when people will pitch a perfectly good device, just to get the "upgraded" version... when 90% of the internals are exactly as the original device and in perfectly good working condition!

Yes that would be great only Apple has been making sure their devices are not user serviceable and you upgrade sooner - no removeable battery, hard to access HDD/RAM (has gotten better on some models), pay for firmware OS updates when many other brands are free and they update/support older versions for longer, no docking stations for laptops, accessories that should be standard are no longer included, no SD slot on most devices, proprietary interface instead of industry standard microUSB, etc, etc...

People might think Apple hardware is quality but their failure rates are mid-pack/average...

 

[dump]

Yes that would be great only Apple has been making sure their devices are not user serviceable and you upgrade sooner - no removeable battery, hard to access HDD/RAM (has gotten better on some models), pay for firmware OS updates when many other brands are free and they update/support older versions for longer, no docking stations for laptops, accessories that should be standard are no longer included, no SD slot on most devices, proprietary interface instead of industry standard microUSB, etc, etc...

Yeah, this drives me up the wall!

People might think Apple hardware is quality but their failure rates are mid-pack/average...

I've been really happy w/ my macbook pro. It's definitely my best laptop to date... and 2.5 years old at this point. My previous sony, dell and sager laptops had multiple failures within 2 years Saw similar things from the acer laptops the startup I worked at got for everyone.

 

[syadasti]

I've been really happy w/ my macbook pro. It's definitely my best laptop to date... and 2.5 years old at this point. My previous sony, dell and sager laptops had multiple failures within 2 years Saw similar things from the acer laptops the startup I worked at got for everyone.

Apples rates are still average at best. People also make the mistake of comparing consumer lines to professional. Compare a Macbook Pro to professional line from Lenovo, Dell, or HP and its nothing special and often those include free extended warranties at lower prices to boot.

 

[dump]

Apples rates are still average at best. People also make the mistake of comparing consumer lines to professional. Compare a Macbook Pro to professional line from Lenovo, Dell, or HP and its nothing special and often those include free extended warranties at lower prices to boot.

My sony was pro, top of the line and it was absolute garbage. After that, I said the only PC I would buy was an IBM/Lenovo... which is what I bought for my wife. It's going on about 4 years now pretty much without issue (battery wore out in 12 months of light use, replaced with a bigger one and has been working fine since). Just discovered a strange one the other day. If I power down the computer, it won't turn on with the power switch! If I unplug the power chord and then hit the power switch, it turns on just fine.

 

[syadasti]

My sony was pro, top of the line and it was absolute garbage.

Sony doesn't make a true separately corporate line and few take their premium offerings seriously. Price is not the determination.

Among consumer lines, they have rated well. You have to consider a large sample otherwise you aren't seeing the real pattern:

Most notebook all come from factories in Taiwan - Apple, Dell, HP, etc don't have their own factories, they just have contracts with these suppliers similar to many bike companies.

 

[dump]

Yes, I'm aware, just giving you my personal and limited experience.