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The Age of Touch Computing

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the touch-me-there dept.

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."

10 of 414 comments (clear)

  1. The mouse... by CannonballHead · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:The mouse... by theaveng · · Score: 5, Funny

      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!

      --
      FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
    2. Re:The mouse... by xtracto · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

      --
      Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
    3. Re:The mouse... by JCSoRocks · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

      --
      You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
  2. Didn't get past the first sentence by patch0 · · Score: 5, Informative

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

  3. Re:Mouse will be dead? by SirLurksAlot · · Score: 5, Funny

    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

    --
    God, schmod. I want my monkey man!
  4. Be Sure to Practice Safe Computing by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 5, Informative

    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!

    --
    Bruce Perens.
  5. Size of pointer; different buttons by tepples · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  6. Touchscreens and Bacon don't mix by Hordeking · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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!

    --
    Disclaimer: The opinions and actions of the US Gov't are in no way representative of those held by this author or its ci
  7. Touch screen is situational. by MMInterface · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.