Disney Research is currently developing multi-user touchscreen technology that is able to identify and differentiate between individuals based on their impedance profile, an approach that the group refers to as capacitive fingerprinting. As demonstrated in the video below, the system's capacitive touchscreen detects an individual's electrical impedance over a range of AC frequencies, which in turn creates a profile that is unique for each user since everything from bone density, muscle mass, and clothing can affect the results.
Capacitive fingerprinting builds upon the group's Touché system, which uses touch-sensing technology to distinguish between different objects or parts of a body and can even add touch functionality to nontraditional surfaces. While we would love to see capacitive fingerprinting used for collaborative work situations on a large touch surface, it is probably more likely that Disney will implement it for use in multiplayer gaming, not unlike the SideBySide platform that the group revealed last year.