The Ultimate Dual-Hand Touchscreen

LithiumX writes "This morning I saw a video demonstration of the most interesting input technology I've seen for a long time. This is a touch-screen that accepts inputs from multiple (I saw at least 8) points at once. It seems very responsive, the display is large and of decent resolution, and they actually wrote software to take advantage of it. It appears to be entirely research at the moment. I'd offer up organs for one of these things."

Benefits vs cost

[zebadee]

I appreciate that touch screens are faster to use in some situations compared to a mouse, and in some situations (public access terminals in a cinema etc.) they are better but for the average consumer are touch screens necessary. Most people out there have been brought up with the mouse and are very adapt at using it. Other than the coolness factor (akin to having the fastest graphics card available to play doom3 at 200fps) is there a real market/need for touch screens for general consumers? Especially comparing the price of a mouse/LCD monitor vs touch screen?

Wow

[Tom]

That's an incredible technology. If it works as demonstrated, I can see it replacing the mouse. If we can get useful keyboards in there (sorry, software-based on-screen keyboards suck, they lack tactile feedback) as well, this could open up a whole new way in which to interact.

See, a lot of buttons on the mouse and on the screen are merely to differentiate between different actions, e.g. resize, fullscreen or close a window. More logical and intuitive options are possible with multitouch technology, e.g. as shown in the demos.

Re:Touchscreen keyboards

[SimHacker]

Just as keyboard driven applications had to be rewritten to accept input from mice. Horribly traumatic, wasn't it?

-Don

Software more impressive than hardware...

[Anonymous Coward]

The demo is simply amazing and the future seems like a very cool place. But, in many ways, hardware like this really highlights the need for more inuitive SOFTWARE. The demo is not cool because you can wave your hands around on the screen. It is impressive because the computer in the demo seems to understand what the user wants to do. Whether you're using a single-button mouse or eight fingers, software that can anticipate a user's needs is what is really impressive. Programmers should understand this.

Minority Report

[tamnir]

After the initial "Oooooh, shiny! I'll give a kidney for one!" impulse, this reminds me quite a bit of the spiffy user interface in Minority Report, probably because of the intense arms-waving involved. So, makes me think the same too: very cool to see, but highly impractical. Your arms and shoulders would get painfully tired after just a few minutes using this...

So, I'll be keeping my kidney this time, thank you very much. I'll just go grab a box of tissues and watch the video again... ;-)

Re:Problems with touchscreens

[fosterNutrition]

Good points. It always did amaze me how their computers had such advanced AI, but I suppose it was just mere telepathy with the user that made them so prescient.

Minor clarification of little note: The computer I mentioned from The Island would actually not give gorilla arm. It was essentially a table, with the user's hands resting horizontally on the surface or downwards if used while standing. Basically it was like a PC-less standard office desk, only nothing on it was physical but rather images on the desk surface.