NYU's IMPAD touch surface technology

Technology Review has a new article on NYU's "IMPAD" technology, formerly known as "unmousepad." An excerpt:

New research from New York University, however, promises to make
multitouch interfaces that are cheap and flexible and can be used by
fingers and objects alike. The technology, called Inexpensive
Multi-Touch Pressure Acquisition Devices (IMPAD), can be made paper
thin, can easily scale down to fit on small portable devices, or can
scale up to cover an entire table or wall. The researchers will present
IMPAD next week at the Computer Human Interaction conference in Boston.

The iPhone captures information about touch by measuring a change in
capacitance when a finger or other conducting object comes in contact
with the display. Surface screens use cameras to see the position of
objects on the tabletop. Perceptive Pixel's displays
also use cameras, but in a different way. Those cameras are used to
track infrared light as it scatters in the presence of a finger or
stylus. While Perceptive Pixel's touch screens collect pressure
information, it's still impractical to use cameras for smaller or touch
interfaces. IMPAD takes a different approach by measuring a change in
electrical resistance when a person or object applies different
pressure to a specially designed pad, consisting of only a few layers
of materials.

Link: A Better, Cheaper, Multitouch Interface (via Kicker Studio)

It goes on to say that the inventors are starting a company to commercialize the technology.

(Images from Technology Review.)