It looks like touch monitors are about to become big business. We have already seen the HP Compaq L2105tm and the Dell SX2210T and now Mobileandnotebook.com have posted some info and a video about the new Albatron 42-inch Optical Touch Monitor.

The display works by having a pair of CMOS cameras installed in each of the top corners, as well as reflectors fitted to the sides and bottom of the screen. The cameras are used to “sense” where your finger is, although you can use pretty much anything as long as the diameter isn’t too small, so the back of a pencil would work well instead of your finger if you’re afraid of smudges.

The sensor and reflectors are mounted onto a tempered glass panel that sits on top of the LCD panel and as such acts as protection for the LCD panel, although it should be possible to implement this technology without the glass panel in say a notebook. A small controller board is then attached and this is in turn interfaced with the computer via a USB connector.

One of the advantages in developing the touch screen in this manor is that the cost of implementation doesn’t increase much by going up in screen size, so it is quite feasible to have a 42” or larger touch screen.

Apparently this is the same or very similar technology that is implemented in the HP Compaq L2105tm and if this is the case I would suspect you will see it implemented in most of the multitouch monitors from now on.