TouchMagix: Convert any wall or floor into an interactive touchscreen

TouchMagix is a Pune-based startup with a product that can convert any wall of floor into an interactive touch screen. Targeted towards “high footfall” areas like malls, conferences and lobbys, it is a technology with a lot of potential, and frankly, something that we don’t expect to see out of Indian companies. After being very impressed with the demo at their Bhonsale Nagar office, we interviewed founder Anup Tapadia for PuneTech. TouchMagix technology will be on display on both days of the Hi Tech Pune Maharashtra 2009 conference in Pune on 26th and 27th – it’s definitely worth checking out. Anup will also be speaking at the conference on Friday. Read on for the interview.


Q: Can you give an overview of TouchMagix?

A: TouchMagix is a technology that allows any projection screen to be made interactive. Imagine a picture being projected on a regular wall, and a person can walk up to the wall and start interacting with the objects in the picture, and they actually react to the touch. TouchMagix technology allows adding such multi-point interactivity to any projected surface i.e walls, floors or screens. The projected surface reacts to the human gestures. It reacts to a touch, or it can react to gestures from a distance. And this can be done with any existing surface.

It is a medium that attracts crowds of all ages and helps brands “Get Noticed” with fun and interaction. It has extensive applications in retail, malls, advertising, events, promotions and gaming. We believe that this is the way brands would communicate to their consumers in future. At TouchMagix we are focussed towards building technologies and services which will aid brand owners to create an everlasting impression in consumers mind. Right now we have launched this product, and our team is overwhelmed with the response from all over the world. Now the real challenge we are facing is to accelerate the process of deployment across the globe in short amount of time. We are looking for awesome people to join this wagon!

Demo of TouchMagix. Click here if you can’t see the video.
Q: Can you dig a little into the technology that goes into making TouchMagix?

As off now we have 2 products, MagixFloor™ and MagixWall™ which are like large multi-point touch-screens. Both the technologies use same set of hardware and software. The hardware comprises of a high-end PC, a projector and our proprietary TouchMagix sensor. The sensor feeds the signals to the PC software, which recognizes human gestures and generates an XML feed on loopback interface. This feed can be integrated with any designing software like Adobe Flash, Adobe Director, 3DS Max etc… to build games and content. We offer an Open SDK interface which can be used by creative agencies or game designers to build content for deployment on TouchMagix. We also provide a remote controlled media scheduler for rotating content on the media. We are also in the process of designing audience measurement tools that will give web based interaction statistics to an advertiser.

Q: There are existing systems in US, Israel and elsewhere which do similar things. For example, Reactrix Systems. How do you differentiate yourself from them, both from an IPR perspective and a marketing perspective.

We have a superior and cost effective technology than most of the competition around. Technology, is just one aspect of the media. The possibilities with the content that one can build on this media would establish our position. We are offering an Open SDK interface for developers that no other competitor is offering. We are also introducing a feature of audience measurement, and web management which will set us apart. Reactrix systems was a close competitor for us, but they recently shutdown despite investment of $75 Million. Any good idea badly executed can also lead to failure. Being in India, we have an cost advantage along with the technology edge to deliver this product to the world. We have a team with diverse experience in technology, advertising and gaming and we believe we can make this happen.

Q: What were the unexpected challenges that you faced in making this happen.

A: Loads of challenges surfaced during the process of development of this technology. It was like playing the game of snakes and ladders for last 2 years day-in and day-out. What we thought was working in the labs and we said hurray, was a basket of new challenges on the field. Elimination of pseudo sensing was one of the big challenges that we had to overcome.

Pseudo sensing is a problem in which the movements of the objects that are in the picture being projected need to be distinguished from the motion of the human. Earlier the system used to do false detections on the projected image thinking it was the human motion. Now we have overcome that problem.

Q: Unlike most other “IT” and “web” startups, your technology has a significant hardware component. This is not something common in India. Has that been a challenge for you?

A: I was fortunate to get an experience in both hardware and software during my journey of learning. My dad always says, “You are a jack of all trades, and master of some!”. This trait helped me in integrating hardware and software required to create the product. Having our own hardware solved lot of problems, which would have been difficult otherwise. It also helped in building the intellectual property around it.

Q: What conventional (and unconventional) means, you are trying out for marketing your product?

A: Basically we have 3 types of customers.

  1. Private companies advertising their own product in private spaces. e.g – An mobile company putting it in their every showroom.
  2. Public place owners where advertisers would like to advertise their products. e.g – A mall who would lease out their space to advertisers.
  3. Short term installations for events, exhibitions, activations, promotions, parties etc.

We would be handling 1st type of customers by direct marketing initiatives. 2nd and 3rd type of customers would be handled through channel partners who have local presence. In addition to this, we will also be doing online direct marketing.

Q: What funding options have you considered?

A: The first phase was funded by Family and Friends. Along with the business plan, the next phase funding plan also would be frozen.

Q: At a very young age, you have done a lot of interesting and varied things? Can you tell us a bit about your background and the various areas you’ve worked in?

A: I started exploring computers at a very young age. At the age of 14 I became the world’s youngest Microsoft Certified professional to achieve MCSD, MCSE, MCDBA. I was fortunate to receive written compliments and motivation from Bill Gates, Azim Premji, Dr. Raghunath Mashalkar, Dr.Irwin Jacobs and many others for this achievement. At the age of 16 I started off my company TechnoKarma Labs with a vision to build innovative indian products for the global market. Our first product was 802.11b based mesh router. This router was a low cost and more efficient alternative to the way wireless networks were being deployed. During this time, I was also associated with International Institute of Information Technology, Pune (I2IT) for research in High Performance Computing under mentoring of Dr.Vijay Bhatkar. After my 12th standard at Fergusson College, I was offered to join in as a full time MS student in Networks & Telecom at I2IT skipping my engineering degree. At the age of 19 I received my 1st Masters degree. As part of my masters thesis, I had worked on a low level distributed memory management system for virtual machine clusters. After my Masters, I worked for 1 year with Qualcomm at San Diego, USA. I developed 2 products in distributed mobile computing at Qualcomm’s Corp R&D which were patented. I received an offer to join University of California, San Diego (UCSD) for Ms-PhD program in Communication Theory and Systems. I decided to join UCSD for PhD. My topic of research was Ad-Hoc networks and large scale distributed systems. During my stay in San Diego, I got a chance to work with a Venture Capital firm and get a view of several start-ups that they had invested in, or were planning to invest-in. This experience was invaluable. After completing the Master’s courses and some MBA courses I decided that I would like to come back to India, and start off TouchMagix. Presently I am on leave of absence from UCSD. I have been consulting to several start-ups in India and US on technology and product development.

Q: You could have chosen to do your startup in San Diego, or in Silicon Valley. Why did you choose to come back to India?

A: I see India as a place with ample opportunities for an entrepreneur. My dream always has been to see India as a product innovation hub rather than a BPO hub. I decided to setup my company in Pune to pursue this dream. TouchMagix Media Pvt. Ltd. is the first entity of the TechnoKarma Labs. I dream to have many more product companies like this in times to come. I love to interact with like minded people who share this vision.

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19 thoughts on “TouchMagix: Convert any wall or floor into an interactive touchscreen

  1. This is a great product. This is a new concept in India but as it catches up and advertisers realise the power of interactive technology and audience measurement system — it has the potential to change the OOH advertising landscape.
    All the best

  2. Hey Anup,

    I went through the video of demo. The produce is simply awesome!! What other games are you targeting in near future? Any other products in a row?

    All the best for future endeavours …

    -Dhaval

  3. I have seen the demonstration of the TouchMagix product. It is a very engaging medium for advertisers who find current mediums too passive a medium. Further, the ROI on marketing spend is very hard to estimated especially with OOH. I believe this product can even help advertisers track the number of people who interacted with the product.

    Keep up the good work!

  4. Thanks everyone for their wishes.

    @Dhaval We are in process of making several games. Trying out stuff in 3D games now. Will be integrating more functionality in gesture recognition and audience measurement too.

  5. Finally some true innovation coming out of Pune! The post was really inspiring. Good luck with your future ventures.

  6. Absolutely no words, it’s amazing product, I think you don’t even need to market it just show demos to ad agencies and media people your product would be bundled in their offer…..

    It can become an must be part of media, but also one can setup an amuzement park with it.

    I am only concerned with marketing strategies you defined. To startup it is Ok, but much bigger can be done.

  7. Dear Anand,
    Great achivement. We all at Rathi family wish you all the best for your bright future.
    With Love.

  8. I am glad to see you are focusing on Hitech products rather than add to the BPO/ITO hub. Intellectual capital is created by individuals like yourself who are a master of your vision!
    Best wishes
    Lalitha

  9. Hi Anup

    Recently, even I have relocated to India and am currently evaluating product development options.

    But your product and the article above is truly very fascinating!

    Is the demo on 26/27th of March, and where is the location? Would love to attend and learn more.

    I will also send you a linked in invite, hope to discuss further.

    Best regards
    Sameer

  10. Hi Anup,
    Great work in execution. It has tremendous opportunities in other areas also as compared to what you are targeting in advertising and gaming market segments. Keep It up.

    Cheers
    Akash

  11. Please check Lm3Labs, a Japanese company which has a headstart in this space and have a list of impressive customers but not able to expand fast to apture market share.

  12. hi , i read ur interview in the newspaper today . Its nice that u followed ur dream and set up an example for others. Congrats for winning thE Asian Award . u have become an nspiration for me n would consider myself lucky if I ever get a chance to have a conversation with u .

    Tc and I hope 2 c u soon

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