

Ask HN: What powers CNN's touchscreen graphics?  - jrwoodruff

I'm really curious to know what CNN uses to power the interactive graphics on their big touch screen displays, particularly the maps where they can zoom in on states to see counties, etc.
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co_pl_te
I haven't been able to dig up specifics, so hopefully someone with more
knowledge can add to this, but the CNN "Magic Wall" is an 82" LCD Multi-Touch
Display made by Perceptive Pixel — originally a privately owned company
founded by Jeff Han that was acquired by Microsoft in July this year.

As far as I can tell, it's powered by an NVIDIA Quadro 6000 workstation. Not
sure about the software, but it's likely custom-tweaked.

Perceptive Pixel's tech was originally developed for military applications
(and the military does use their displays), but you can see why newsrooms
would swoon over tech like this — especially for election coverage.

Here are a few links to related articles that might provide you with more
information:

Wikipedia article on Multi-Touch Collaboration Wall:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-Touch_Collaboration_Wall>

Perceptive Pixel's page on their 82" display:
[http://perceptivepixel.brandgreenhouse.com/products/82-lcd-m...](http://perceptivepixel.brandgreenhouse.com/products/82-lcd-
multi-touch-display)

NVIDIA's Quadro 6000 page: <http://www.nvidia.com/object/product-
quadro-6000-us.html>

2008 WaPo article on CNN's Magic Wall: [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2008/02...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2008/02/04/AR2008020402796.html)

Jeff Han TED Talk from 2006:
[http://www.ted.com/talks/jeff_han_demos_his_breakthrough_tou...](http://www.ted.com/talks/jeff_han_demos_his_breakthrough_touchscreen.html)

------
runjake
I didn't see rhyme or reason to John King's gestures and assumed the screen
was actually manipulated by someone off screen, but co_pl_te has me doubting
my theory.

