Is there an ipad for your feet? NO!! check this out

iPad? So yesterday. Why waste your time with a laptop-sized touch-screen when you can make the entire floor of a room in your house one giant iPad?! At least, that's what one tech company is hoping for.

Patrick Baudisch and his colleagues at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany, have developed a touch-screen floor prototype device called "Multi-toe." It allows users to log in, type and play music and games just by walking or tapping with their feet on a special silicon/acrylic/glass screen built into the floor.

Why is it necessary? According to the company's Web site, "tabletop computers cannot become larger than arm’s length without giving up direct touch. This prevents tabletop applications from dealing with more than a few dozen on-screen objects."

The "Multi-toe" would have an enormous screen, without taking up the space, and would be able to handle many more objects and programs onscreen at once.

While touch-screens on cell phones and other smaller electronic devices are commonplace now, "touch floors" are still struggling to get off the ground. They have some stiff competition. A similar device developed for mounted LED screens was released in February; a transparent thinner-than-paper polymer skin, developed by DISPLAX Multitouch Technology, can make almost any surface interactive.

But what makes Baudisch's device unique is that his prototype can identify individual registered users based on shoes, where the pressure hits the foot, the size of the foot, how the user walks, etc. It even call users out by name.

The device is able to "ignore inactive users, identify and track users based on their shoes, enable high-precision interaction, invoke menus, as well as track heads and allow users to control several multiple degrees of freedom by balancing their feet," the company's Web site says.

Here's a video showing how it works:

According to NewScientist.com, Baudisch said they have already adapted Multi-toe for the video game Unreal Tournament. With the screen projected on the ground, players are able to move a character by leaning forwards, backwards and from side to side. They can even shoot at each other by tapping their toes. I hope they develop a DanceDanceRevolution game as a standard feature on the device. I would jump all over that!

There are some kinks they would still need to work out though, in my opinion. For one, I could see people with big feet getting frustrated with some of the features, especially the typing. For another, a multi-touch floor is probably not a good idea for a house with kids or pets. One run through the living room with a toddler, or a dog, or a toddler chasing a dog and the neighbors might think you're throwing a rave party.

On the other hand, I could easily see a "Hokey Pokey" game (you put your left foot in, you take your left foot out, etc.) for kids fitting in nicely with this technology. Oh the possibilities...

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