uma and multitouch bring the big touch to start-up week europe

uma SKIN™ Multitouch Display at the Federation of Austrian Industry Provides Interactive Information Board; shows new semantic social features on SKIN

VIENNA, AUSTRIA – uma, the leading innovator in semantic web technology, and MultiTouch Ltd., developer of the world’s first multi-touch LCD screen for large-scale displays, today announced that it has installed the umaSKIN™ (Semantic Knowledge Information Network) product, at this week’s Startup Week Europe in Vienna. The uma SKIN wall will act as the interactive multitouch information board for the conference, which will be held at the Federation of Austrian Industry, Am Schwarzenbergplatz 4, 1030 Vienna.

uma SKIN is a modular multitouch display solution that incorporates uma’s semantic content curation engine in a multitouch wall, using MultiTouch Ltd.’s industry-leading large-scale multitouch LCD displays, the MultiTouch Cell™.

"Public displays are increasingly becoming multitouch-enabled, and our partnership with uma has successfully created the first intelligent multitouch system of its kind," said Petri Martikainen, CEO of MultiTouch.

The uma SKIN™ installation will provide a 2.4 meter wall consisting of large LCD multitouch displays that deliver real-time information, based on suggested topics or key words. uma SKIN™ enables visitors to explore a realm of topics which are presented and contextualized automatically from different data and web repositories.

"The value of information is as tactile as it is cerebral, and the uma SKIN product combines world-class semantic technology with the latest multitouch displays for a truly living product," said Christian Doegl, CEO uma. "The Vienna Startup Week conference is an ideal audience for this kind of participatory media experience."

uma for the first time gives a glimpse on it’s new SKIN social features with a twitter app that contextualizes tweets and makes them tangible on the Multitouch Wall.

Like an organism’s skin, the uma SKIN™ product provides a display that can be touched and manipulated to generate response in the form of information. uma SKIN’s™ semantic content curation engine minimizes the effort for content production, editing and curating. It can be used in corporate or public communication, retail, exhibition and museum scenarios. The semantic content curator engine is able to retrieve and contextualize content from various repositories or the web, including web 2.0 sources. Person-tracking, enables passive interaction of content with visitors. The interaction with the content is on-demand and is personalized through RFID technology. Interactive screen area configurations currently range from 1.2 up to 18 Meters @ 29 Megapixels.

"As the premier Centreal European start-up event in the world, it is fitting that we showcase some home-grown Viennese innovation at this conference, and the uma SKIN product is the outer limits of technology design and integration," said Oliver Holle, founder of SpeedInvest, a technology fund, and initiator of TechCrunch Vienna. "It is incredible to experience reactions that users have when experiencing uma SKIN; we believe that it is changing the way people interact with information, and it is a coup to have this at our event."

About uma - separating the signal from the noise

Since its’ founding in 1994, uma has been thinking about new forms of complex knowledge retrieval and spatial user experiences. Within this domain, uma has continuously built its reputation as an innovative leader, demonstrated through various awards and international recognition during the last decade. uma provides end-to-end services for its customers, helping with creative planning as well as the implementation and integration on the basis of Melvil© , a semantic service platform, and the SKIN™ and VICO™ Multitouch Solutions.

uma clients include the OTTO Group, Republic of Austria, Siemens, Intel, IBM, Intersport, Deutsche Telekom AG, 3, Verbund AG, Red Bull and L’Oréal.

About MultiTouch Ltd.

MultiTouch is a leading developer of interactive display systems, based on proprietary software and hardware designs. The company is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, with U.S. offices in Santa Clara, California and New York City. Its systems are currently in use in more than 40 countries around the globe.  For more information, please visit www.multitouch.fi.

Contact:

Chris Pfaff, +1-201-218-0262 or chris@chrispfafftechmedia.com

Katharina Meißner, katharina.meissner@uma.at