from The Montreal Gazette:
Robert Biddle is a professor of human computer interaction at Carleton University and one of the lead investigators on what is known as the Digital Surface Software Application Network (SurfNet), a project involving 12 elite researchers who believe the time is right to take touch-screen technology to a new level.
“Computers these days are really designed for one person. There is one keyboard, one mouse, one cursor on the screen and one focus of attention. You see people working ‘together’ and they are all just sitting there staring into their own computer,” Biddle said.
“New multi-touch technology will allow big displays to be used by more than one person at a time. People working around the conference table, sketching things and showing them to one another in parallel. We think this has a lot of potential.”
I think that this is the next step in touch screen computers, where more then one user can use the computer for something totally different then the other person. Example one user editing word documents while the other is Viewing something from a social media site