By Chris Koenig

is at your

fingertips THE world's largest interactive touch-screen display has been launched by Interactive Displays, based in Wallingford.

Called Mega-Mate, the screen has a huge touch-active surface area of three square metres.

It was commissioned by BRC Imagination Arts for car giant Volkswagen and will feature in its new corporate identity centre in Dresden, Germany.

Users without prior training or technical skills can touch the screens to control computer, network and Internet-based appli- cations.

Groups can use it together and the screens are being installed in the British Library, travel and estate agencies and cinemas.

General manager Julian Robinson, pictured above with the screen, said: "Large-format interactive touch is an essential technology if we are to link as many people as possible with the benefits of multimedia e-systems.

"To meet the demands of Government, business and the public, access to electronic multimedia information must be simple, selective and effective. Interactive touch-screens will play a key role."

A technological breakthrough by Interactive Displays enabled engineers to scale up the touch-screen technology to meet the growing demand for larger formats.

The Mega-Mate uses two membranes separated by a small air gap, with a low-voltage electric field across them.

When the screen is touched the two layers connect. The contact is detected by a controller and relayed to the computer device driver.

Interactive Displays was founded in 1994 by Mr Robinson and two partners, who produced a working prototype. Their first product was an interactive whiteboard.

Since then, the company has designed, manufactured and delivered more than 15 models of touch screen for education and training, corporate presentation, retail information and process control.

Displaymate products have been exported to more than 18 countries worldwide.

The company has recently moved from Henley to Wallingford, where it occupies a purpose-built production facility, showroom and offices.