Israeli company N-trig, a multitouch technology developer, will have five companies - Microsoft being one of them - investing US$24 million. Microsoft' participation in the investment is largely due to the fact that its next operating system, Windows 7, supports N-trig's DuoSense technology, which enables the operating system's multi-touch capabilities.

The funds, jointly provided by the companies - which along with Microsoft include Canaan Partners, Aurum Ventures, Challenger Ltd., and Evergreen Venture Partners - will meet the financial requirements of sustained development of touch-based notebooks as well as convertible computers.

N-trig intends using the funds towards new technology development and for supporting the creation of new applications.

In a statement, Amichai Ben-David, N-trig's CEO, said: "We will use this funding to keep fueling technology innovations in Hands-on computing, providing leading OEM brands with new product platforms and supporting ISVs to develop new applications. Additionally, we intend to expand our global supply chain by developing breakthrough mobile platforms in order to create and penetrate new markets."

A computer, which is equipped with N-trig's DuoSense technology, can allow input from either a pen or a user's finger. Supporting multitouch, the product can recognize concurrent contact from multiple fingers, thereby enabling gestures such as "pinching" to shrink an image's screen size.

The company's technology is presently available in the HP TouchSmart tx2 and Dell's Latitude XT, with more announcements expected in the near future.