Multitouch discovery

I don't remember when I saw Jeff Han's Ted demonstration for the first time, but it was before the iPhone was announced in January 2007. That Ted talk was why I was fascinated with the iPhone. I remember seeing a few more demonstrations, I think even one from Microsoft. But at that point it was just a "wow" technology - it would have never occurred to me that someone could build one of these things at home (which means, of course, that I missed the whole point of the demonstration). Satisfied with my iPhone, I was still keeping an eye out for anything I found related to multitouch. To me, I see it as a great way to interact with the computer more naturally, which could allow for some interesting creative projects. A virtual puppet show or light show is obvious, and already done. At the time the thought of being able to turn the thing into a keyboard or turntables was beyond my imagination. That's already been done as well. I can't even begin to imagine where this will be in a few years when more developers jump on board. Still, at this point I hadn't heard the key point- these things can be made for cheap.