Will Multitouch change your digital life ?
“Message from Jeremy: To all Tech IT Easy readers, who could obviously not necessarily remember the initial announcement, I have invited my friend Steve to help me try to provide you, dear readership, with everyday better technology insights. Steve’s mission statement is that there’s no mission statement: what matters most here is to raise the right issues on underlying market trends, bringing to light new software, Internet services and consumer electronic devices. Steve, the floor is yours…”
Yes, it will.
Here is a short demo of an innovative project developed at NYU’s Department of Computer Science (requires Quicktime). I find it quite impressive, but wait for what’s next !
As perfectly described by NYU’s consultant Jeff Han,”multi-touch sensing enables a user to interact with a system with more than one finger at a time, as in chording and bi-manual operations. Such sensing devices are inherently also able to accommodate multiple users simultaneously, which is especially useful for larger interaction scenarios such as interactive walls and tabletops. “
Although the first researches started way back in 1982, at the University of Toronto, multitouch has been mostly instigated by Apple (see the now legendary iPhone), and Quantum. FingerWorks, a startup which has pioneered the technology, was bought recently by the latter while the former is actually suing Apple for an alleged patent infringement on this very technology.
As usual, business-related bickerings must not hide the essential thing: this is really going to change our digital lives. In 1984, the introduction of graphical interfaces by Apple – courtesy of Xerox -, soon to be copied by Microsoft, also launched a controversial round of legal disputes, features-copying, etc… But in the end, everybody benefitted from this innovation and nowadays one cannot imagine a decent PC controlled only with a command line (of course, Unix users are alive and kicking, but even the wide majority of them always use some kind of graphical interface most of the time, right ?)
I am really confident about the future of multitouch. Not only does this allows us to zoom easily on a map with two fingers, but we will also benefit from being able to manipulate various tools, windows, and icons at the same time. Of course, the OS, which his accustomed to prioritizing tasks (processes, daemons, call them whatever you like) might find this quite uncomfortable. And it might seem somehow brain-exhausting to open a window with one finger while dragging an icon on it with the other hand: it’s like playing piano with two hands rather than one, something I personnally never achieved in 22 years despite huge efforts. Yet I am quite sure that with a bit of practice, multitouch will turn up very practical. And anyway, the next generation will have no trouble using such tools when they are fully generalized, and once again diehards geeks will be humiliated by their 8-year old brother (remember the advent of the Web ?).
Gains of productivity will surely be quite interesting….but imagine adding on top of this voice recognition: won’t all these technologies end up IN A TOTAL MESS ?
What do you think ?
LikeRelated posts:
Steve, the last time I ended a post with “What do you think?”, I didn’t receive any comment (see here: http://jeremyfain.wordpress.com/2007/02/21/web-20-stocks-twice-as-expensive-as-enterprise-software/)
So don’t expect me to leave a comment now.
Oops, I just did.
This is very spiritual, Jay.
I actually had no clue this kind of project was being researched. Very Minority-report-like.
It sounds interesting, very promising… and yet if it fails, it wouldn’t be the first time that a new technology full of possibilities does (the less than convincing performance of tablet PCs come to mind).
As you say, people may find it hard to use, even though they may get used to it eventually (after all, using a mouse wasn’t that intuitive for many people in the beginning). I would wait to see the price of such things, as switching costs (learning to use the technology) may be high, particularly in the beginning.
Emmanuel: What’s wrong with the tablet PC??? I think it’s a tremendous technology that hasn’t been overtaken yet by any device on the market.
Moreover, switching costs always incur in the beginning…
A similar technology which is not sold as Samsung might have imagined it, is the flat screen e-book: http://www.pcinpact.com/actu/news/Un_ebook_avec_ecran_plat_LCD_pliant.htm
Interesting, Rupert, but I can’t find anything near multitouch in these screens…
That’s right. It’s only a flat screen.
What I meant with the tablet PC is that is it far less successful than expected (wished?) by B. Gates. I agree it is a great technology, but it has not (yet) boomed.
As for switching costs, of course they incur at the beginning -individually! I meant the beginning of the technology on the market. As more and more people start using it, switching costs (learning + fear of using a new technology that may fail) for new users are lower and lower over time.
True about the Tablet PC: it’s a great technology but it’s not selling too well. Maybe still too costly for the bulk of potential consumers (like me).
Okay, I now understand your point about switching costs.