JazzMutant
has developed a multitouch control panel called Lemur which is being distributed in the US by Cycling ’74 (who also are responsible for Max/MSP.)
Lemur is basically a touch screen that can be programmed to display a virtual instrument or control that will accept multipoint touch input. The programmed controller can then be used to control things using the appropriate interface. You can develop virtual instruments and so on. Could this be used to create interesting text environments? This is thanks to Matt Patey.