Multi-point touch user interface
I want my entire desk to be made of this stuff. Awesome.
http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer.cfm?key=j_han&flashEnabled=1&
I want my entire desk to be made of this stuff. Awesome.
http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer.cfm?key=j_han&flashEnabled=1&
November 5th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
Wow — the more I learn the less I know!
November 6th, 2006 at 9:15 am
This is definitely pretty sweet. I’m pretty sure I saw something very similar a few years back (there was a previous little surge of interest in these multi-point touch interfaces) that was not presented quite as well. He mentioned that there were better ways to go with bringing the keyboard up to do text input but don’t think he should have shown that at all. Unless the physical device can change shapes dynamically this will be an ergonomics nightmare. Typing of any sort (even if it’s a helpful moving one with your hands like he mentioned) is just not suited for a flat screen. Full movement to this sort of interaction with a PC has to include a better option for text. If there was some stellar voice recognition paired with this it would be very cool. No hand stress - natural interaction with the interface for the majority of tasks (which right now is clicking, scrolling, moving, etc unless you are in some really text-input heavy job). He mentioned as part of the keyboard thing the fact that there is no need to be tied to physical devices anymore but that setup is completely tied to one big one. I think we’ll always need or want some physical input device for certain tasks. Even if voice recognition were perfect - you don’t want everyone in the cube area talking out loud constantly. Not even mentioning the privacy concerns - that’s just akward. It also makes me think about my work. I couldn’t / wouldn’t want to write code with voice input and my wrists would kill me with a “virtual” keyboard like that. Maybe if there was a seperate virtual keyboard that was basically an ergonomic device with dynamically changeable keys it would be a good pairing. Ok, I’ll stop rambling now . . .
November 6th, 2006 at 2:17 pm
What about a keyboard where instead of the traditional keys, the key press is determined by pressure from certain fingers. For example pinky left, pointer right could be a certain key. You’d never lift your fingers from the surface, you’d just apply more pressure. Typing would be closer to playing chords on a piano than traditional typing. Not sure if you could get that to full, regular typing speed, but do you have any thoughts of how the ergonomics of that would be? Is it bad to just apply pressure without moving the fingers, or would that be better than normal typing?
November 6th, 2006 at 6:52 pm
I would think the main concern (and this is definitely a limitation of most current keyboards) is physical positioning of the hand and wrist. It’s more natural for our wrists to rest on the sides of our hands on a desk than with fingers down like on a current keyboard. I think any cool way of doing the input would work but the future (if we want really comfortable input) would still involve either not having to use our hands or a device that allows placement of your hands in their natural positions. There are already side keyboards out there but they don’t seem to be natural for the QWERTY setup. I’m thinking something cool like a pimped up version of the Wii’s new motion controller. Basically you are catching finger movement over projected keys in a better configuration than QWERTY for the side resting wrists. Not sure though. I’d say it must be a difficult point for researchers considering we’ve made nearly zero commercial advancement in the keyboard mouse thing for a long long time.
November 7th, 2006 at 1:56 am
Partly difficult because the public isn’t going to want to change at this point. Everyone knows how to type, and most people don’t really want to re-learn the skill. Personally, I don’t bother to type. I just use my Jedi mind powers…
November 7th, 2006 at 9:37 am
Well yeah but you didn’t know how to type from the get go. Personally I didn’t get proficient at it until after keyboarding class. And people before keyboards had to learn when they came out. A new way of doing it would be just as teachable (is that a word?). Also, I think a big thing here is to do all of this in a transitional manner. It can’t be an overnight switch - even with the multi point touch deal. You have to ease people into using it and start introducing other input options to use with the current stuff, etc then slowly they will be considered better and the switch over can happen. Or for people like us we just do it tomorrow because it rules.
November 14th, 2006 at 3:30 pm
Who’s going to market it first, Apple or Microsoft?