The Age of Touch Computing

DigitalDame2 writes "In 2009, touch computing will go mainstream. More and more devices will be legitimately touch-enabled with gesture controls for browsing through photos, tossing objects around the screen, flicking to turn the page of a book, and even playing video games and watching movies. In fact, Gartner analyst Steve Prentice told the BBC recently that the mouse will be dead in three to five years. PCMag has a full look at touch computing — the past, the present, and the future — including an interview with Sabrina Boler, touch UI designer."

Comments

The mouse...

[CannonballHead]

IIRC, people have been claiming the mouse will be dead in X amount of years for quite a few years now. And keyboards, too. And non-automatically-driven cars. And I think we're supposed to be living on the moon by now or something...

Predictions and speculation are cool, but humans do not appear to be very good at fulfilling them in general. Talk to an economist about that.

Re:The mouse...

[Zironic]

In my experience touch computing just plain sucks, I'm barely able to get anything done without tactile feedback.

Re:The mouse...

[theaveng]

Also why would I want to be waving my arms at my CRT or LCD screen?

That's too much exercise. The mouse is perfect for a lazy engineer like me. I just prop my arm on the desk and move my hand left or right. I barely move at all!

Re:The mouse...

[SirGarlon]

From TFA:

In fact, Gartner analyst Steve Prentice told the BBC recently that the mouse will be dead in three to five years.

Now there's the voice of authority. Not.

Re:The mouse...

[MBGMorden]

I think a lot of that comes down to the fact that for desktop computing, the keyboard and mouse work, really, really well. Sure you can experiment and such, but it seems like any move (on the desktop) to replace those objects is born mostly out of a feeling that we should replace those devices simply because they've been around for so long, and not because of any real shortfalls of the devices themselves.

The place where they DON'T work well: portable computing, has seen the rise of touch computing because it is a way to interact without the space requirements of the keyboard or mouse. IMHO though, it's still a compromise that doesn't work as well from a purely functional standpoint. Basically, I'd rather have a keyboard and mouse at that time but it's simply not practical.

Overall, I think the age of touch screen MOBILE devices is here, and is here to stay for quite a while. Keyboard and mice will likely not be suplanted any time soon for other devices. The desktop itself is also often the subject of predictions stating certain demise, but I think that falls into the same area: when you are at home, there is something to be said for nice big speakers and a large screen to look at things on. Even if the portable device does become one's main computer, I'd suspect that we'll see a resurgence of docking stations where you could come home and dock your iPhone to a keyboard/mouse and larger monitor for more relaxed usage. If that becomes popular I'd also envision a sharp rise in home-NAS devices like the Drobo or Apple's Time Machine. As of right now, and for the foreseeable future, I just don't see the limited capacity of portable devices keeping up with the storage needs of the individual. Particularly as more and more TV shows and movies start to shift towards online distribution.

Re:The mouse...

[xtracto]

Also why would I want to be waving my arms at my CRT or LCD screen?

Just earlier today I was thinking about this. I believe that one possible sollution to the "gorilla arm" syndrome is to put the monitor in the place of the keyboard, and move the keyboard a bit down.

The second issue to address (all this IMHO) is the visual feedback. I believe that in order to make touch-based interaction feel more natural, the applications will have to present the information in a more familiar way.

In general, I believe that touch computing can be real and can have advantages as well, however, I also believe that using touch computing does not directly means keyboardless computing as they serve a different purpose.

Re:The mouse...

[Nerdfest]

A mouse is way too much work for me ... I use a trackball. Even that's really just a stop-gap until a neural interface is available. Fitness freak.

Re:The mouse...

[JCSoRocks]

Touch computing fails in every way possible.

I like my monitor perfectly clean. Using displays all covered in finger grease drives me nuts.

Your hands conceal parts of the screen while you're using it.

You can move a mouse over a greater distance much more quickly than your entire hand. It's also much easier to get to a specific pixel / small area with a mouse than with your fat fingertip.

People keep lauding the Minority Report UI like it's a good idea. Do you really want to have to hold your arms up like that and move them around all day?

Positioning the screen ergonomically for use as in input device puts it in a position where you're hanging your head looking down all day. The minority report problem obviously applies if you position your screen at the optimal viewing position.

Others have already mentioned it, but lack of tactile feedback is a big one. This is particularly important for programs whose UIs aren't that great. You hit the touchscreen button - the button didn't move and there was no sound. You can only guess that your button "press" didn't register because nothing happened... but you don't really know. I see this on ATMs all the time.

How is wasting half of your screen real estate on a keyboard a good idea? Oh, you can bring it up dynamically? Oh great, well then I guess you don't get to use keyboard shortcuts. That sucks.

Re:The mouse...

[_xeno_]

Try the touch pad on the new MacBook and MacBook Pro. It works amazingly well - and one of the reasons is that you don't "tap" to click, you click to click. As in, physically press down on it, and feel and hear a click. You can enable "tap" to click but it's off by default, and given the number of misclicks I've made on other touch pads, I rather like it being off.

Several things make this touch pad just work compared to other touch pads I've used:

1. It's giant, compared to the touch pad on most other laptops.
2. You "click" by pressing down on the entire touch pad (well, the part towards the front), meaning no room is lost to buttons.
3. You can perform "gestures" using multiple fingers. Four fingers slid down enters Exposé mode, four fingers slid up shows the desktop, sideways switches applications. Pinch to zoom (like on the iPhone), two fingers to scroll: it all works very nicely and seamlessly.
4. And, probably the most importantly, you're not touching the screen. You're touching a touch pad below the keyboard.

So you get tactile feedback when clicking, you get a large work area, and you get all those wonderful multi-finger gestures. It works amazingly well, to the point I was trying to use the gestures on my Windows laptop after less than a day of using the MacBook.

Of course, this isn't quite the same as the "touch computing" they're talking about where you touch the screen. And the touch pad is nowhere near as accurate as a mouse (although it's good enough for day-to-day use).

But it does show to me that touch-based gestures do have a future - I just don't think I'll be touching the screen on a full-sized computer any time soon.

Re:The mouse...

[Swizec]

Of course you can't get anything done without tactile feedback. Our whole phisiology has been evolved for tactile feedback and our brain has gotten very good at interpreting it over the past few million years. And now these bozos think in a few short decades we can relearn a whole new paradigm to manipulating our surroundings? I don't think so.

Just think how much easier it is to turn a knob to adjust volume. You know exactly how much you've moved it. But with these modern touch screens you have to tap and observe what the software tells you has changed via a visual cue.

Sure when you think about it an equivalent to turning a knob could probably be made with a good touch screen UI, but still, you have to first look to position your finger, then drag it across very empty space and hope it worked.

How about typing, is it even possible to blind type with a touch-screen keyboard? How about detecting when you've mispressed a key without looking at the keyboard? Somehow I doubt that last bit is possible and I know from personal experience I usually detect errors with typing much sooner via my fingers than my eyes because by the time the eyes figure out what I've typed is incorrect I'm already two words ahead.

Re:The mouse...

[theaveng]

Yes. My 12-hour-a-day mousing exercises are why my right hand is so strong. It has nothing to do with anything else.

Nope.

Na-uh.

That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

Re:The mouse...

[CodeBuster]

It's also much easier to get to a specific pixel / small area with a mouse than with your fat fingertip.

We're sorry, but the fingers you've used to dial are too fat. To order a magic dialing wand please mash the keypad now.

Re:The mouse...

[torkus]

You've touched on my thoughts regarding touch screens. I have a tablet, iPhone, Storm, treo due to work. Also have a ATM card so more touch screen use there. Also have a few "real" laptops, blackberry curve, keyboards, etc.

What I've found is a touch screen is good for simple data input. Call it one-dimensional. Pick from this menu of choices. Manipulate this single object. Basically something you can do with one hand...usually 1-2 fingers. For this, it's quick.

Once you get more complex, call it two-dimensional, things slow to a crawl on a touch screen. Typing is either slow or error prone. Multi-hand manipulation? Well sure, but your eyes can't pick out enough detail over the area of two hands to be of much use. This is where a keyboard and/or mouse become much more efficient. They're faster and I equate faster with better.

So touch computing will grow somewhat. it will comtinue to be refined and useful for one-dimensional data input. Simple selection/manipulation. Good luck getting me to lift my hands off the keyboard to the screen just to do something i would with a mouse. Heck, i use keyboard shortcuts so I don't have to move my hand off to the mouse when possible. The time saved might be 1-3 seconds...but i do it a thousand times a day.

Re:The mouse...

[fisheye999]

Simple - just decrease the opacity of your hands.

Didn't get past the first sentence

[patch0]

"Touch computing-which started with the iPhone"..... At this point I stopped reading...

Re:Mouse will be dead?

[SirLurksAlot]

Playing a FPS shooter would ... interesting ... as well.

Yeah but boxing games will be great! Except for the whole "replacing your monitor after every session" bit.... :-D

Be Sure to Practice Safe Computing

[Bruce Perens]

With all of the new fads, some computer users may not be aware of the danger of touch screens with multiple partners. Diseases like Onchomyosis can be spread from one finger to another by touching a screen that has multiple partners. Be frank and honest with your screen. Purchase finger cotts, always have one on hand before you consider touching, and use them consciontiously!

Size of pointer; different buttons

[tepples]

Reach and tap - mouse and click. How are these in any functional way different?

With a mouse, the pointer is a small 16x16px or so bitmap. With a touch screen, the pointer is your hand, and that's probably ten times as wide and 20 times as tall. Even a stylus obscures more of the screen than a mouse pointer.

With a mouse, you can activate something one of four ways: hover, left-click, wheel-click, or right-click. In Firefox, these are bound to open linked page, open linked page in new window, and show link's context menu, respectively. Hover isn't bound to anything, but CSS or JavaScript on a page often binds hover to show a menu. With a touch screen, there's only one click unless you make your system non-free and license the patents covering basic multitouch gestures from Apple.

Touchscreens and Bacon don't mix

[Hordeking]

Anyone who thinks touchscreen computing will dominate soon better come up with a smudge-free coating.

I wonder how effective touchscreen computing would be for me with super-greasy hands after eating a pound of bacon. Yum!

Touch screen is situational.

[MMInterface]

This is modded funny but it's true. The mouse requires a lot less effort than touching your screen. In that sense touch screen is almost a step backwards. The benefits of touch screen are very situational, but it seems like novelty and looks are whats drawing attention to it. I think that the touch screen is often beneficial in situations similar to tablet pc: when you are standing up, and can't easily use a mouse and keyboard.

Right now touch is often being marketed as one size fits all. The success of the iPhone has helped support that(not trying to diss Apple so please don't hurt me). The use of touch screen on phones is somewhat different though. Touch screen works better for phones when you are stationary. When you are on the go and want to type without looking at your screen the whole time, touch screen is not the best method for input.

In vehicles there are other issues. Touch screen has the benefit of saving space by combining the screen and the input devices. The problem is that it requires more attention that may be better focused on driving. With conventional controls you don't necessarily need to look away from the road for a split second.

I think the problem is that instead of finding the best use for things, people tend to follow all or nothing trends. Every new trend is supposed to completely replace the old one. At least that's how the media often presents things. Saying the mouse is going to die pretty much means they want to get credit for predicting the latest fad. Touch screen will excel in certain areas and the mouse in others. In a desktop setting, the mouse is generally going to be there fore a very long time.