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Wacom already has this, it’s call Bamboo Fun.
It fails just the way most new ideas for a desktop fail: it’s self-centered. Some wanker likes it that way, wishes his desktop worked that way, and introduces it to the world under the assumption that everybody wants the same. With soothing (condescending) background music, of course. Because ANYTHING will work and make your life easier if you just relax and accept it the way it is. Just ask Apple.
I would hate that desktop for a rather long list of reasons.
The UI challenge is a big one for sure and lots of innovation taking place for all sorts of screens – smartphone, tablet, TV’s.
For the desktops and handhelds, I’d like to see more innovation using voice control to SUPPLEMENT the existing interfaces instead of replacing them. At least for now.
Awesome. The windows paradigm has to go.
But there’s no way to tell how it’ll work unless in practice. Also, it’s interesting that no mention is made of typing or how to type — until the end. When the 10GUI slate is shown surrounded by a conventional keyboard hovering above. Who wants their keyboard that far up to the screen? It’d be like some laptops.
So all that multi-touch stuff just so i can do things that I can already do???
Sorry mouse wheel scaling still works better than pinch.
Interesting concept…Keyboard seems to be an afterthought though.
Apple has a patent on the human hand so i’m afraid any new interface paradigm will have to use a different part of the body – maybe something designed around the feet or the ass will emerge.
#2 – It’s not just computers. Every single detail of every type of machine’s user interface is the way it is precisely because “some wanker” likes it that way, except of course those developed by wanker committees.
This reminds me of the WebOS way of handling multitasking. I’m not sure how it’s done on Android.
I was with them up until the multi finger requirement. Remembering which sequence of fingers does what is highly unintuitive. I suspect that this type of interface would never become second nature. Mouse interactions and touch as it is on the iPhone work well be cause they work as you’d expect.
Gestures, aside from very literal ones like pinching and tiwrling, have never really caught on because they never become instinctual for the user.
I don’t see how the added hardware cost and software complexity of this sort of multi-touch is valuable enough to usurp the mouse.
The mouse is effective because it works well across a variety of applications. If all multitouch offers is enhanced workflow with certain applications then it wont ever catch on outside laptops and other devices designed for touch interaction. On a desktop I’d rather have two mice for 3D applications and other things that could benefit from multiple pointers. A left and right mouse would give you much more precise “multitouch” control than any touchpad could, plus you won’t end up with blisters on your fingertips!
There is no evidence that people would want to use these things.
For anyone that grew up shooting bad guys in 1995 and onward, the mouse is already an extension of your human hand. For me it just seems to natural and a mouse is probably the most intimate piece of hardware I own. I can’t see switching to a new system that doesn’t have the pointing accuracy of a mouse.
Windows are inefficient, but I don’t really like their solution either. It seems like a good idea until you have several applications running.
Interesting.
Moving from 2D to 1D as the technology moves to 3D.
Curtis E. Flush said
#2 – It’s not just computers. Every single detail of every type of machine’s user interface is the way it is precisely because “some wanker” likes it that way, except of course those developed by wanker committees.
I disagree. Most machines have very obvious and restricted use. A computer, and by “computer” I mean its endless repertoire of abstractions and analogies, allows an almost infinite number of possibilities, of purposes and of methods. That is one machine that has to accommodate a very large diversity of purposes, preferences and approaches. When someone looks at that incredibly vast sea of possibilities, picks the one he likes and try to establish it as the best one, he is just pleasing himself. That’s what a wanker does: he pleases himself.
The 8bit sound track Rocks!
Luc said,
“I disagree. Most machines have very obvious and restricted use. A computer, and by “computer” I mean its endless repertoire of abstractions and analogies, allows an almost infinite number of possibilities, of purposes and of methods. That is one machine that has to accommodate a very large diversity of purposes, preferences and approaches. When someone looks at that incredibly vast sea of possibilities, picks the one he likes and try to establish it as the best one, he is just pleasing himself. That’s what a wanker does: he pleases himself.”
Granted, the computer is by nature less restricted in its use than other machines.
On the other hand, the origination of certain machines of very obvious and restricted use has often been done by those whose very notion that these machines should begin to exist at all would qualify them for wanker-dom.
Regarding computer user interface design, (or building architecture, for that matter) if anyone who promotes a certain design or paradigm change is to be dismissed a self-pleasing wanker, then by what means could the design process possibly move forward?
I’m not trying to go all Ayn Rand here, but the individual leap of imagination is not something a culture should reflexively sneer at.
I kinda like it. Sure, the location of the keyboard isn’t ideal, and I don’t know how great the UI will be to use in the real world, but I think they got some great ideas here.
Its not the interface that is limiting==its the hours on our fat asses.
Evolution will now select for people that can stare at a screen for hours.
Read a novel (Dean Koontz?) about an ooze that melded people to whatever they were doing when the ooze hit. Didn’t say it outright, but it seemed to me the computer/people were the happiest.
Lots of interesting new ergonomic ideas have tried so hard. Could it be, though, that mice have simply just become the latest version of QWERTY? History often rhymes, they say.
The guy lost me when he got to using 3 fingers to move applications around and then four fingers and then introducing two hands for multitouch. I shouldn’t have to memorize so many functions.
Holding the application’s title should allow me to move the application in that “row” thing of his.
Sorry… it was alright at first. This won’t be the winner.
This is nothing more than an evolution of the conventional desktop. It looks intriguing, but really only re-defines interaction in a conventional GUI.
I agree with one of the other commentators that the keyboard appears to be an afterthought.
Only when there is a fundamental change in the way a machine can interact with or be controlled by a human will we see a revolution in the GUI. As I stated in my comment on your PC Mag column, its not a software problem. The hardware isn’t available yet to affect such a change.
Hey, that only took 7 minutes to “GET TO THE POINT!”
I’d love to try something like this out. When I play World of Warcraft or Dragon Age at the beginning of the game it keeps popping up “Tips” that you can click on, then dismiss, or sometimes have the option to go back to.
A new user interface could have these same options, or maybe devote parts of the screen to images of fingers making motions with a label of what that does, and once you became “sufficient” you could remove this “training wheels” area of the desktop.
I think Dallas is right- the next step needs to be better integration of voice commands. This concept is intriguing but I don’t think I’d switch; I’m comfortable with mouse/keyboard and it works well for me.
The first thing I thought of was replacing the mixing console for DAWs, but I think the lack of tactile feedback would be a drawback there.
The next big thing will be Windows 9 in 3D. Just make sure you are using the prefered Microsoft glasses and 3D mouse.
Using fingers on devices the size of cell phones seems to work well but for desktops probably not so well. Depending on the size of one’s finger, precision is kind of low.
I wonder how many TouchSmart PCs HP has sold.
…and funnily enough, most of this already exists if you choose to use an OS (and/or apps) that make good use of the keyboard through shortcuts and quick commands and all that. The speed with which I can “type” command sequences in tools such as Total Commander will blow any kind of pointer-control-paradigm out of the water even with the fancy UI suggested here.
Remember when cell phones became popular and there was a wave of people complaining about how annoying it is to be around someone who is blabbering on the phone? Now, imagine what it’s going to be like when voice command recognition really works.
Sounds great to me! But, they need a better name for it! I’ve already forgotten the name and I just watched the video. (“10-something” I think.)
I have always thought “windows” was the wrong metaphor for computing. Task-switching under DOS was more intuitive.
As for the interface — I hope this touch technology is better than the touchpads on laptops which don’t work for me.
I tried a HP TouchSmart PC at Costco a couple years ago. The smudges on the screen quickly showed what the weakness of that interface was.
Microsoft’s demo of a horizontal screen in a tabletop probably has similar interface problems (the smudges, plus rings from drinks).