Musicians Don't Need Venture Capitalists Any More

Get Jeff Han's Media Wall... And Have Your $100,000 Conversation Piece

from the but,-you'll-be-cool dept

Mon, Oct 8th 2007 3:13pm — Mike Masnick

When everyone got excited about the multi-touch interface on the iPhone, such things have been around for a while. Microsoft is trying to bring multi-touch tables to market, focused mainly on casino and in-store kiosks. However, one of the things that kicked off a lot of interest in multi-touch systems was the demo that Jeff Han did at TED in early 2006.

Han perhaps is feeling a little left out of multi-touch feeding frenzy as Microsoft and Apple are popularizing the concept -- and it appears that he's finally found something of a route to take his products to the consumer market (previous reports had said he's done well in military applications). Engadget points us to thegadgetsite, who discovered that Nieman Marcus (yes, Nieman Marcus) will be selling Han's newly dubbed "Media Wall" for a mere $100,000. Now go back and watch the video above again. At the beginning, Han notes that the exciting part of his work is that it's "low cost" and "very scalable." $100,000 doesn't quite seem "low cost" unless you're a Google founder. Well, hopefully, that scalability will quickly lead to economies of scale that will make the "low cost" part a little more accurate.

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Filed Under: jeff han, multi-touch
Companies: nieman marcus

9 Comments

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B, 8 Oct 2007 @ 5:29pm

MS
This looks exactly like Microsoft's table/Apple's wall, but if I recall, wasn't Microsoft's table only $10,000 and it even had more functionality?
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- Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2007 @ 10:57pm
  
  Re: MS
  Maybe you meant --> doesn't "MS.../Apple's/..." looks exactly like this?
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Brad, 8 Oct 2007 @ 5:49pm

Art, not cost
I think you're missing the point. This is not the screen shown in the video there, but rather an ultra-high-res display and a massive touch system, and a half-dozen computers behind it. This is not a small object.

If you want a small one to play with at home, build it yourself. You can put together a 50" sensing display for about $200, and then it's up to you how much you spend on your projector.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Interactive-Multitouch-Display/
(Instructable on building your own)
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darkbhudda, 8 Oct 2007 @ 9:50pm

$100,000 is chicken feed for certain industries eg control centres in power plants drop that sort of money to buy meter long LCD screens.
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Link Store, 8 Oct 2007 @ 11:25pm

A half-dozen computers behind it. This is not a small object.
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Jack, 9 Oct 2007 @ 12:07am

Say What, Say What?
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Jack, 9 Oct 2007 @ 12:08am

Say What, Say What?
"who discovered that Nieman Marcus (yes, Nieman Marcus)"

What is Nieman Marcus?

Do you mean Neiman Marcus, the upscale department store?
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Iron Chef, 9 Oct 2007 @ 1:48am

Jeff Han is my hero. I was telling my old VP that he needed to get on board with Han's innovations two years ago. You know what T-Mobile did? They went with Microsoft Surface Computer. So lame.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZrr7AZ9nCY
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Killer_Tofu (profile), 9 Oct 2007 @ 6:27am

Mark Up
Nieman Marcus could just have a 500% mark up on this product or something like that?
I will admit I did not read the original article but from the sound of it the article did not state what he is selling them for and how much of that 100K is mark up.
For example, I can buy a one pound bag of chocolate covered cashews as Save A Lot for 3.99$
Meijer has now stopped selling the Brachs candies of the same idea, and now just so happens to be selling the same darn brand, bag, size, and all. They sell it for 6.99$ (5.99$ on sale).
I know Save A Lot may not be making a huge margin on the product they sell there for those chocolate covered cashews, but Meijer is making a freaking killing for every bag sold.
I just noticed that last night as its the first time I noticed Meijer is selling these now instead.
This article reminded me of it.
So many 90K of the 100K is mark up and what they think rich people will pay.
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