Jeff Han's presentation at TED in February of 2006 was the first I had seen of multi touch like this.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/65
You'll notice in the photo application that he pinches to zoom in and out.
I pray that the difference between using the exact same technology on a 4 inch screen that you had seen on a 40 inch screen isn't novel, but with our patent office these days it won't surprise me.