Computer Mouse Heading For Extinction 625
slatterz writes "The computer mouse is set to die out in the next five years and will be usurped by touch screens and facial recognition, analysts believe. Steven Prentice, vice president and Gartner Fellow, told the BBC that devices such as Nintendo's MotionPlus for the Wii and Apple's iPhone point the way to the future, offering greater accuracy in motion detection."
Re:The end of one-handed surfing? (Score:5, Informative)
While I completely agree that I don't want anyone touching my screen (yuk!), there ARE better methods of inputting x/y coordinate data than a computer mouse. A tablet is certainly effective, but a little bulky for most desks. The trackball is also effective, but equally disgusting to me unless it's cleaned regularly. The track-stick is favored by many, but I never found it truly useful - probably because I can't seem to get the hang of it.
Another point to make is that the Wii Remote is (with the exception of the accelerometers) functionally identical to a computer mouse with the optical eye reading many images per second to detect motion. The method by which the receiving end translates the data into x/y coordinate data is certainly different, though.
Yeah, 'cause accuracy is never required (Score:5, Informative)
how many people click the "bold" toolbar button when typing something? Keyboard shortcuts beat the mouse in speed, efficiency, and accuracy. They simply require experts (as in an expert system) to use. You've got to know that they exist. BUt could you imagine typing 60 words per minute, and then taking ten seconds to make a few words bold?
Touch screen accuracy is terrible. And it's got nothing to do with the technology. My finger is larger than one pixel. Oh, and my arm blocks my view of the rest of the screen.
You know, this is the same garbage that minority report showcased. Of course it's really cool to do video editting with your arms. Ever gone to the gym and taken boxing as a fitness effort? The most difficult part of boxing is not getting punched in the face -- that's pretty easy. The most difficult part about boxing is holding your hands up for an hour.
I manufacture kiosks and develope kiosk solutions. The only reason that kiosks are touch-screen is because 90% of the public using them don't know how to use a mouse with any sort of speed -- and we're selling tickets on these kiosks to thousands of people each day. Speed matters. And when it comes to accuracy, each on-screen button is is a minimum of one two inches wide by a minimum of one inch tall, with a minimum of one centimetre of space around the button.
All of these great input interface devices are incredibly snazzy, and excellent for particular things. But they are never better than the simpler interfaces for simpler things. A button is a perfect input device -- it's discrete. You know what to do with it, it doesn't require you to look at it, you know when you've pushed it. That's why keyboards benefit from feedback, travel, and texture. That's why there's a little bump on the "5" keypad key, the "5" on my mobile phone pad too, and the "2" and "4" on my car stereo -- I don't have to look at any of them. I can drive, and dial the phone without taking my eyes off of the road.
You can't do any of that with a mouse. It's completely useless without looking at the screen. Could you imagine typing on a touch-screen-type keyboard? No travel, no feedback, no texture, no way to know if you've hit the key at all, let alone the correct one.
In our kiosk manufacturing, touch-screens have another benefit. You can say things like "press here" or "touch here" and people do. It's amazing how many directions are required to teach the public to use something that you think is easily used -- like swiping a credit card. Photographs, animations, the works, and still people swipe their card into the seam of the lcd bezel -- or try to cram it into the animation on the screen. And now some people expect us to use multi-touch screens -- good luck teaching the general public to perform gestures to buy their show tickets.
Oh, by the way, finger prints -- I hope you aren't using your screen for anything important.
Telepathy is the same game. Neural interfaces sound like they're so easy to use. Think about clicking the button, and you'll click the button. "hey, I think all the time, thinking is easy". Sure, you think all the time. But how many times do you think about only one thing? That takes incredibly focus. I don't want to have to meditate for every click, thanks.
Currently, my body has a huge filter. No matter how much I think, my finger only moves when I move my finger. So I can think about pressing button, I can remember pressing it last time, I can think about not pressing the button, and can think that the button is an ugly colour, and stil I haven't pressed it.
The trouble with a bad neural interface is that you need to meditate for every action. The problem with a good neural interface is that it has no idea as to the degree of your intention -- positive nor negative.
So, much like the mouse, a neural interface is great as an analogue input device, and horrible as a discrete one. Think about a simple 2D graphics app -- photo shop, for example. "draw a line" is easy wi
5 years... nah, not going to happen. (Score:4, Informative)
As an interaction designer who has designed interfaces for touchscreens, multipoint touchscreens, mice, props and various other peripherals, I simply don't see how this is going to happen in 5 years. Hell, I doubt it will happen at all.
First and foremost, it's not like a touchscreen is inherently better then a mouse. Each input devise has it's own strengths.
Moreover, abandoning the mouse is not going to be an easy thing to do. Aside from the fact that we really need completely retooled OS interfaces, we would need to invest in need completely retooled third party software. Then we would run into ergonomic issues surrounding the neck and or touch screen "gorilla arm."
IMHO, the mouse is a brilliant little input devise. It's no longer the new kid on the block,but that doesn't mean it is a solution that has been surpassed.
Re:Gorilla Arm Syndrome (Score:3, Informative)
From the jargon File:Gorilla Arm [jargon.net]
I'd really like all three (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Gorilla Arm Syndrome (Score:5, Informative)
We've done several studies of touch screens at my shop, mostly to answer the question: "which touch technology is best?" Last year we did another study where we installed various touch screen technologies on about a hundred cash registers, measured cashier performance, and collected cashier observations and feedback. We were expecting to get several complaints regarding comfort over time, others who found it easier to use, and were hoping to come up with a way to "justify" offsetting the complaints with the gains in productivity. These gains would first have to pay off the extra initial expense of the touch screen, but then would offer us labor savings.
But instead we were very surprised by the results of the study: the touch screens did not make the operators more productive. We saw absolutely no gains in performance. We even looked for a slight bump for new cashiers to demonstrate it was easier for them to learn on a touch screen, but we found nothing at all.
Regarding the cashier's comments, we consistently come up with the same results: a screen high and vertical enough to be very comfortably visible makes for an uncomfortable input device. This includes both touch screens and monitor-height keyboards, such as the NCR Dynakey [ncr.com]. Operators find the bent wrist position uncomfortable over time, and their arms get tired. Traditional keyboards at waist height are just as productive, but cost much less.
Re:Gorilla Arm Syndrome (Score:3, Informative)
i worked with a graphic tablet as a mouse replacement for 4 years now and i think you are wrong.
smaller graphic tablets are much more incomfortable than bigger ones.
Re:Gorilla Arm Syndrome (Score:3, Informative)
If you're talking about a non-screen graphics tablet, then you're missing the point just a bit. You don't look at an Intuos or Graphire while you're using it. You put it where you'd put your mouse pad, or on your lap, or in front of you on your desk. If you had to hold your pen up all day and tap the monitor, you'd quickly find it uncomfortable.
A screen-type graphics tablet like a Cintiq also sits on your desk like a drawing board, not like a monitor.
GP was talking about eye-level screens that you touch with your hand.
I also used a graphics tablet as a mouse replacement for a while -- my only pet peeve was picking up the pen every time I wanted to do something, and putting it down to type. If there will be a near-term alternative to a mouse, it might be a finger-sensitive desktop pad, with or without a screen. But mice are so cheap, simple, precise, and ubiquitous that I think 5 years is pretty unrealistic.
Re:In theory, I'll agree. (Score:3, Informative)
Serial ports are practically a must-have for anyone working with industrial controllers. Parallel ports are less important, but there's still a fair bit of old-yet-mission-critical software floating around with parallel port dongles - for instance, for programming the afore-mentioned industrial controllers.
Re:Gorilla Arm Syndrome (Score:3, Informative)
Is the pad on that Macbook especially good for some reason?
Yes. Three reasons: