Oct
24
2026
Ideum has developed interactive touch tables since building our first prototype table in 2008. We’ve learned a lot in the last 18 years, and in that time we’ve sold thousands of units in more than 60 countries around the world. In this blog post, I will outline our design and build process and explain more about the qualities of our custom touch tables and kiosks.
Our early touch tables used projectors, infrared LEDs, and multiple cameras. These early prototypes had limited resolution, required calibration, and they were susceptible to light interference. At the time, this was the state of the art, and we were inspired by the first Microsoft Surface touch table, which used a similar technological approach.
While the “tech stack” has changed considerably, we learned a lot about visitor interaction and designing hardware for busy environments from these early touch tables. Solid-state technologies like LCD and LED monitors, IR overlays, and eventually projected capacitive touch sensors prevailed. We've been there from the beginning of these core technologies and we have seen them evolve and improve. All of our touch table and touch display products use capacitive touch; we made that move nearly a decade ago.
Our touch products provide foundational components for custom touch tables and kiosks. We use our own Inline displays, Ideum-built computers, I/O boxes, fan arrays, and other parts that we design and produce for our product line. These essential components fit into custom enclosures, creating a reliable, high-performance custom touch table or kiosk. The same industrial designers who work on our product line help design custom enclosures and exhibits.
Our fabrication studio officially opened back in 2018. We regularly produce our Reader Rail, a 5K ultra-wide 34” wooden fabricated kiosk, and our 55” High Top Touch Tables. We’ve also built about a dozen custom touch tables since our fabrication studio opened for clients such as the San Diego Zoo, the Science Museum London, Qualcomm, SoCalGas, Verizon, and Monterey Bay Aquarium. We’ve worked with IDEO, Gensler, C&G Partners, XPRIZE Foundation, and other design partners to craft these custom touch tables and kiosks.
Our Fab studio is just a few miles from our main campus in Corrales, New Mexico. We have a talented group of fabricators who work with a variety of materials. The studio is fully equipped with a top-end CNC, laser, 3D printers, and all the tools needed to create custom exhibits in a variety of materials. We’ve worked with wood, metal, and solid-surface materials. We also have specialty fabricators we partner with on some projects. A few years back, we developed a 20-foot-long touch table out of bookmatched Italian marble with a local stone company.
While we do some welding and metal work ourselves, we’ve been working with metal fabricators for decades. Many of our products are made out of aluminum. All that aluminum comes from North America, and we design and assemble all our products in our hardware studio. Many of our products are TAA-compliant, and most qualify as built in the USA. We have designed custom tables mostly or entirely out of aluminum.
Ideum has a team of skilled designers and developers. We’ve created hundreds of custom interactive exhibits and understand the design principles that touch tables and other potential multi-user environments present. Check out our portfolio to see more of our custom software and other custom work.
We take pride in the quality of our products and custom projects. We also back them up with a three-year warranty. We provide the same warranty for our custom touch tables and kiosks as we do for our products. (The only limitation is “custom finishes,” which may not match the durability of our powder-coated aluminum and fabricated wood-laminate products; if you have questions, reach out.) You can check out our warranty on our website.
We have a dedicated support line and ticketing system, and the same folks who build our touch tables provide support. We get back to most support requests the same day we receive them.
Whether your project will use wood, metal, or something more exotic, Ideum can design and build it. We can also specify custom colors or unique finishes. Custom tables can take on a wide range of form factors and sizes; we can work with you to ensure functionality and the right aesthetics. We can help make your custom table or kiosk fit into built environments or exhibition spaces. We also design custom exhibitions, so we understand the importance of interaction and visual language in these dynamic environments.
We can include other interactions or electronics, such as tangible objects, RFID tags, secondary monitors, LED lighting, sensors, and other add-ons. Our exhibit design group and our AV team specialize in these types of interactive elements. You can learn more about our capabilities on our website.
Finally, we can also ensure that your custom project adheres to ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) standards. We’ve published a white paper on ADA accessibility for touch tables and kiosks, “Accessible Design for Multitouch Tables…” Museum experiences are better when they can accommodate more people. We’ve incorporated ADA accessibility into our products and projects since we started the company.
If you are interested in learning more about our custom touch tables or our design-and-build process, please reach out to our sales team; we’d love to work with you.
