Integrating multi-touch in high-resolution display environments

High-resolution display environments consisting of many individual displays arrayed to form a single visible surface are commonly used to present large scale data. Using these displays often involves a control paradigm where interactions become cumbersome and non-intuitive. By combining high- resolution displays with multi-touch and gesture interactive hardware, researchers can explore data more naturally, efficiently and collaboratively. This fusion of technology is necessary to effectively use tiled-display environments and mediate their primary weakness interaction. In order to realize these objectives, a team at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) developed an economical display system using a combination of commodity hardware and customized software. In this paper we explain the requirements, design process, functions and best practices for constructing such displays. In addition, we explain how these systems can be used effectively with application examples.