Good question… I’m open minded and might as well enjoy this particular model, my mind was just going to Linnstrument or Soundboard sizes I guess, as they might give a wider range of pitch probably.
I believe that we might get more and more sensitive surfaces as we go along, so the size of the area might not matter as much. Maybe in the future we’ll have a surface that can sense the individual hairs of a paint brush - imagine what that could do for innovative musical performances…
Part of why i ask is that Aodyo is developing the 49 key length 2-D ribbon for their Omega Keys.
It’s unclear now what the Loom will be exactly. We have about 12 hours to go until we get more information, though maybe not the complete picture even then. Aodyo did funding for two versions of the Omega so there’s that possibility for two versions of Loom right from the get go.
There are several technology companies that have and are doing those sorts of things.
Sensel was one, and they’re still in business, though they dropped the Morph it is still possible that their technology could make another appearance in some form.
Another, also a French company, is Embodme. We here may be aware of them because of their Erae products, but they are a technology company and are also developing a high resolution touch system similar to Sensel as well.
There are others but i will end this sidebar here.
I am going to guess that one large and significant difference with Loom to the Linnstrument and Continuum systems is going be in price. Loom is, i think, going to be more in the Keith McMillen MPE product price category, but with different capabilities of course.
About size, the Omega desktop ribbon is 40cm wide according to the specs. Looking at the Loom picture, that ribbon could be 40 cm as well, which would make a lot of sense to get two products out of the same base module.
The Omega keyboard ribbon is 65 cm according to specs, but I wonder whether a product that long and thin is viable on its own, as opposed to being a complement of a keyboard as it is in the Omega. And if you increase the surface with a larger depth, then it’s not a ribbon anymore, and probably not the same instrument/product either (and way more expensive to produce?)
Less than 8 hours to go for the announcement.
About size : Two Octaves
When i play melody on a ribbon, going over two octaves, and making pitch shifts more than two octaves, i some times find useful.
But harmonically, i mean from the ability to make a chord, two octaves has enough space for me to make any chord in any root. You can’t unwrap all the open chord inversions, but an arpeggiator can do that.
One thing i like in microtonal systems, is harmonically being able to bend parts of a chord just a little. To get the pure just tuning. Maybe moving the third around, or sliding two notes and transitioning from one chord to another. Like V to I, or ii to V, etc.
For weaving chords, two octaves would be enough.
I wonder about describing three, or four, or maybe even five notes, of an arpeggiated chord and being able to bend those notes just slightly, and have those bent notes arpeggiate.
The multicolored LEDs above each key, not sure but potentially, the color could feedback information on pitch bend ? Or perhaps the color might reflect on a vertical position change, that also might arpeggiate ?
About size : Finger Drumming
Eight pads, each a different percussive element, particularly if they each had an expressive playing surface, one for each of the four fingers of two hands, would work very well. I notice that the black and white guide stripes below the playing surface make nice sized square playing pads, about the right size.
It might be nice to be able to lay down a pattern, and have that pattern loop.
Bleh, still waiting for someone to release an Ondes style pulley system
I think one thing we often forget is that keyboard synths sort of derive from the piano, and the piano has an incredibly abnormally wide range compared to almost all other chromatic/pitched instruments. This is sort of like if we judged all dogs by Great Dane standards.
So, two octaves is plenty for most instruments to be quite expressive. That said, I wouldn’t mind a mode that extended the range at the sacrifice of dis-orienting the surface from the markings surrounding it.
Like the way you can expand and shrink the 4 octave Hydrasynth ribbon to 2 or 6 octaves.
Wow, beyond my expectations! 2 and 3 octaves, the lateral slider, the action zone… Well thought, well marketed. And the crowdfunding price points…
The video makes evident that this ribbon has way more depth than the Omega’s, making it more of a controller on its own indeed.
Yeah ! Backed !!
Yeah, I told myself I wasn’t going to back and yet here I am backing a three-octave. This is a really well-prepared launch.
In case you feel limited by your Osmose !
Expressive E was saving this place for them.
What I need to decide is, is this and an Omega Keys a duplication for me.
ADDED : Plus i have a Hydrasynth Keys.
Same, except with the two-octave. 
Also:
You can send a specific MIDI message to enter developer mode, where every input will be sent as-is, and you’ll be able to control the LEDs and display by sending MIDI SysEx messages to the Loom from your own program or script running on your computer.
This is one of those details that I personally won’t use but that increases the seduction I feel for a product. “Hackable” devices attract tinkerers, and then unexpected things may happen.
Even if you don’t get fancy with this, making simple changes to existing layouts may make a lot of sense.
For instance putting your own choices of specific chords into the strum mode could be very useful.
I wasn’t sure when I first saw it, but more I watch, the more I thought it looks good.
yeah, I think it be a nice addition to an Osmose… not sure Id balance on the levers 
the only question with these things, is how accurate/sensitive the the touch is, as you can’t tell this without trying… and we’ve seen a lot of ‘variability’ of this with past mpe controllers.
Im also a little surprised, given its Aodyo, they didn’t put a synth engine in, to make it standalone (as well) … feels like a missed opportunity.
overall, Im tempted… but just backed the ET 2, and really dont need yet another controller
Stepping out of my musician shoes and into my music fan shoes, I’m pretty excited where the next generation of synth players takes all these things once we get past the wobbly overdone vibrato show off stage. Funny that we had all this with the theremin at the start of electronic music and then we just normalised and quantised all the human expression away.
I like getting feedback from instruments so I think this static wood thing is out for me but excited about the future of all of this in a world when the vast majority of keyboards don’t even have poly aftertouch.
Counterpoint: synths took the piano and made mod and bend standard. So we’re still ahead of the game, expression wise.
Continuous surfaces like the loom are always welcome additions, though.