With Microsoft’s announcement of their touch table top device they’re calling Surface, I’ve been thinking a lot about the different ways we interact with computers and digital devices. Now there’s plenty of devices and prototypes using similar types of touch interfaces that have come out, notably Jeff Han’s research or even this concept HP unveiled last year. Then there’s of course the iPhone’s multi-touch interface which looks phenomenal. Each of these devices look to be great, but they’ve got me wondering about these different interactions on an even grander scale.
It’s been a long time since we’ve seen much innovation beyond the keyboard, mouse, and the graphical user interface paradigms Douglas Engelbart brought us but is this type of interaction as big of a leap as that was?
I’ve yet to get my hands on anything more then the basic touch screen at my bank but the demos for these different products have me mesmerized. The trick as I see it for these devices is to keep the user interaction to be what people expect. If they can, I see them being wildly successful, but my fear is that people will expect something to happen and then when it doesn’t they’ll be incredibly frustrated especially because everything appears to be so natural.
What do you think? Now that these types of interfaces are hitting the main stream are they going to be successful? Is that Minority Report future of gesture based computing far behind?
There will never be true Minority Report-style interfaces - your arms would just get too tired. It’s fine on a small scale (like an iPhone) or for very infrequent use (like the Surface in a restaurant), but anything that you’re going to use for any length of time needs an interface device that lets you keep your body relatively still.
I agree, multi-touch will be fine for social interfaces (group games) and public manipulation (picture cropping) and some home and industrial apps.
But it’s not the end of the mouse by any means. I’ve had a touchscreen laptop for years, and the mouse is less tiring and more importantly, gives me finer-grained input for drawing, selecting, etc.
Each interface has its place.
I think the innovation with the “Surface” technology is exactly where Microsoft has put it, for a change. They have successfully demonstrated it being used in ways which make me think: “Yeah, that’ll work. I like that.” I honestly can’t see the Surface in people’s living rooms (except those with the need to express their wealth) in their present form. They might appear at restaurants, however, and in waiting rooms (imagine waiting and designing your own smile at the orthodontist’s!). And they look like buzz!
As for the interface, gesturing might be fantastic, if it could be minimised. A multi-touch mouse-like device which interacts with a larger screen would be fantastic, and one in 3d even better- capturing the best of both worlds.
The key word here, and the one most difficult do implement, is “intuitive”!