Multitouch In Public Spaces

According to boingboing MIT is working an a futuristic bus stop with built-in touch screens for looking up schedules and bus routes.

The use of multitouch is bound to enter the public spaces of our lives be it the shopping mall, store fronts, bus stops, information stations, vending machines, or everywhere else that you need to get information about something in a public space.

These multitouch systems will have very different design challenges than multitouch on your home computer or mobile phone. We have to consider things like privacy, multiple users with different objectives, and so on. It's mind-numbing to think about all the possible applications of multitouch and the different design considerations that need to be addressed across so many environments and form factors.