TouchSmarter: Touch Screen Gadgets

MarketRecon has an interesting outlook on the future of the iPhone now that the iPod Touch is out. There is some thoughts shared about the price drop, and the affect it had on some of the early adopters. However, what was more interesting was the following statement:

My 3-year projection for Apple: the iPod Touch will outsell the iPhone at least 3-1 and Apple will fade out any products which depend on a wireless carrier in order to focus on product maps which depends on Wi-Fi access.

Why? Because the “I want cool technology” segment is more profitable and larger than the “I need to make a call” segment, and a Wi-Fi model grants more power to the “people”.

I do not endorse the authors comments, but he does base it on a valid point. As always, it will be interesting watching how multi touch products evolve in the next couple of years.

There is little doubt that Steve Jobs has wet the public’s appetite for touch interfaces. Barry Collins over at PC Pro has some thoughts on the likelihood of a touch enabled Mac or tablet device from Apple.

Statements are made indicating that OS X is inherently better suited to fingertip operation than Windows is. I do not think that is true at all. Both OS’s are currently mouse-centric and it will take a refresh of the OS UI to really bring out the multi touch goodness. However, the point is valid that the upgrade to OS X, Tiger, may include substantial support for a touch UI.

I hope his January prediction proves correct, as it will be a great day for computer enthusiasts everywhere.

Multi touch is the buzzword of 2007, with the iPhone, MS Surface, and Jeff Ban’s videos all contributing to the hype around this technology. All of these focus on redefining how we work with information by interacting with it directly on a computer screen.

However, critics have loudly complained that multi touch is not a practical technology for everyday computing. As much as we love multi touch/touch screens, we tend to agree. Even as multi touch takes off, the way people use their desktop PC day in and day out is unlikely to benefit directly.

One of the best aspects of innovative technologies like multi touch, is that it inspires more innovation. Loudestnoise.com posted a brilliantly simple (in concept) idea. Put multi touch where it will do the most good for the most people… right on the mouse. Perhaps it won’t be revolutionary, but it certainly will serve a purpose. Being able to scroll without a scroll wheel, or allowing the user to pinch to resize items will simplify and speed up common, repetitive tasks.

VOIPPhoneWatch.com has a rehash of all the multi touch goodness that makes Apple’s iPhone the most desired gadget of the year.

Editing Organazized has some thoughts on the problems with multi touch. There are interesting arguments about the spatial limitations of multi touch, compared to the ability to lift a mouse and reposition on a mouse pad, but mostly it is the same concerns about multi touch on an office computer, and how arms will hurt from using it.

I hear similar arguments all the time, that multi touch on the desktop is just going to hurt your arms. And I will admit it would. However, I think the future of multi touch means a reworking of just how we interact with computers.

Multi touch makes complete sense immediately on mobile devices like phones and tablet PCs. As demonstrated by the many video demo’s floating around, it also works exceedingly well on very large wall type screens, which are used by those with deep pocket books and specific needs. However, kiosk type applications, such as the MS Surface platform, are where I think most people are going to get a change to use multi touch. Even PCs like the HP TouchSmart, or those digital picture frames that are all the rage, would be ideal candidates for multi touch.

And the argument made about never running out of space with a mouse, being able to lift it, reposition, lower it, and continue the movement, have already been addressed in multi touch. Want to make a picture smaller? “Pinch” it down. Once your fingers are touching, re-pinch.

Still, always glad to see people thinking about multi touch, the more interest and opinion, the more chance of progress.

MicroPCTalk asks the question: how often do you use a touch screen on a tablet PC?

Like the author of that post, I find myself using touch to navigate, but falling back to keyboard for text entry. Navigating with your finger is just such a natural experience. The issue is that a finger is not an ideal pointing device, and buttons and text on screen is often rather small, so pointing your finger exactly where you want the computer to recognize the touch is often difficult.

This is where some of the work currently going on with multi touch may quickly benefit regular touch applications. What seems to be needed is some logic behind the scenes, which would analyze the finger press, and consider what the user wanted to touch, as opposed to exactly where they touched. For instance, when browsing the web, clicking on a text link is more likely the desired outcome compared to clicking on a plain text word. The PC should realize that and act accordingly, even if the finger touched slightly off of the hyperlink.

It is not just touch/multi touch driving innovation in display technology. As this article from Statesman.com elaborates on, 3D and flexible screens are just a couple of other elements that are being worked with. The article goes on to talk about MS Surface and HP TouchSmart as well.

PatentMonkey.com has a very negative outlook on the future of multi touch (at least as it pertains to Apple). If anything, it is worth a read to see some of the areas multi touch technology needs to work on to have a better chance of success.

We won’t spoil the read with the explanations, but here are the 6 points that are brought up:

1. Typing is not a multi touch process
2. Multi touch isn’t being extensively used today
3. Multi touch requires computational resources
4. Pictures and movies won’t be edited
5. Voice recognition is the future
6. Greasy nasty finger marks

Lets just say, we do not think the article makes too many accurate points, but have a read for yourself.

 Jazzmutant brings us further along with multi touch, retrofitting it into a 12 inch Fujitsu tablet pc. The most impressive elements to this device are in its user software. The video shows how an artist or designer could manipulate an image with one hand, while using the other to select various tools, or vary settings like zoom or rotation. This should immediately make the technology desired by graphic artists the world over.

In addition to this prototype shown at SIGGRAPH 07, Jazzmutant has shipping products like the Dextor, an innovative touch device for controlling audio.

Carol Mangis has a bit of a recap of Apple and Microsoft’s multi touch launches this year. She sings the praises of multi touch, and specifically MS Surface. A little tidbit of info that has escaped us until now was that Surface uses a barcode like technology (called Domino) to identify devices you want it to interact with.

This makes sense, and certainly simplifies things technically. However, until that technology is built into devices, it seems like a stop gap measure. Having to put a two cent sticker on the bottom of your device so the $10,000 Surface computer can interact with it seems a little silly to us.