Touch is NOT the "near" future of computing. Keyboard & mouse is.

[legacy7955]

It's interesting to see Lt Commander Data typing away on that touch screen keyboard, of course Data is an "android" so while he IS human in appearance, he is ALL android underneath, that is of course why tactile feel doesn't matter to him and he can likely type 1000 wpm on that board.. LOL

 

[lehnerus2000]

It's interesting to see Lt Commander Data typing away on that touch screen keyboard, of course Data is an "android" so while he IS human in appearance, he is ALL android underneath, that is of course why tactile feel doesn't matter to him and he can likely type 1000 wpm on that board.. LOL

He could have done the same thing using a real keyboard.

 

[crawfish]

He could have done the same thing using a real keyboard.

That glass keyboard reminds me of my Atari 400's membrane keyboard, except that thing at least had depressions where the keys are, IIRC. It's beyond stupid. No wonder certain people here wrote that it's "pretty cool". After all, it is kinda shiny!

Give it a programmable layout, and its price shoots up like a rocket, and it's still an unusable piece of pointless junk.

 

[constantG]

I think that a lot of you are missing the point. The point is that the keyboard exists in both the real world and the virtual world and both require the user to touch them to use them. This makes them the same thing the only difference is the ergonomic advantages which is borne from the environment for which each is being used.
For people using a phone or some kind of mobile device the software keyboard and the touch interface is the best way of inputting data.
For people who have the requirement to input lots of data in an office environment a real world keypad of any description is the best way.
For an operating system to offer the user either method (and Microsoft have been offering that for years, onscreen keyboard springs to mind) is obviously the way forward imo.

CW

 

[gazz9496]

I don't know why this was even brought up.

Coke Robot is only a child - but even he must see a touchscreen is useful for some things and not useful for other things.

Touchscreen will not replace the mouse and keyboard.

It will be an option.

But the mouse it will.

hate to say this but your both wrong, touch is a waste of space in any desktop work environment, and the mouse will go the way of the dodo as well, alternatives to these will come and you'll all see that touch failed before it even started and the mouse will disapear.

touch screen is too expensive to be main stream don't fool yourself into thinking it will become cost effective to buy that junk.

and the mouse well...it will be around for a while yet untill something comes along to replace the whole physical interface medium.

your all thinking that touch screen is the way forward when in actual fact it's more like a side step in the wrong direction. when devices like kinect and another one which tracks just your fingers negating any need for physical contact or a new screen are already available or getting ready to be released to market do you really see touch input having a place on the home desktop? don't fool yourself or try to fool others into thinking that way.

 

[Coke Robot]

Because Minority Report and Star Trek are clearly where tech is going. Riiight.

Touch will remain the province of handhelds, and those desktop users who only email, skype, and facebook (i.e. people who are better off with an idevice anyway). The keyboard isn't going to go away for a good long time unless you can make a touchscreen that can survive my >60 WPM hammering all day long. And it needs to be lying flat on a surface of course, because nobody is going to type faster than a snail if they have to hold their hands and arms up to touch a vertical screen for more than a few minutes.

Mice aren't going away either unless a better replacement is found, and touch at the moment is not it. I've used styluses before and while good for some things they're definitely not mice.

I was thinking about Star Trek and such...

Yes, it may be true that that's not where technology is going....but I doubt that.

Intel has been hiring sci-fi writers to think up ideas for technology that they can build. Who know where technology is going better than the science fiction genre!
Speaking of sci-fi, the first use of a slim, touch tablet in a sci-fi movie was I believe Space Odyssey: 2001. That movie was done in the 60s and about 40 years later, a couple years after 2001, Microsoft shows off a somewhat slim, touch tablet running xp.

Then there's Star Trek, where they use tablets by the way. In Star Trek, they always talk to the computer and the computer answers back flawlessly. Odd, because today, we have Microsoft TellMe, siri, and android's iris. They don't work flawlessly, but they work with the same concept of voice control.

Then there is the Minority Report. The technology in that movie isn't hugely different, since they use touch screens, but what is different is the use of hand gesturing. Interesting, since today, we have the Kinect that is used on the Xbox 360 to navigate through the Dashboard and within games and soon IE9. Not will it be only for Xbox, it will be coming soon to the consumer and will work with Windows 8.

I don't know, Star Trek and Minority Report do seem to know where technology is going........

 

[SIW2]

I never suggested touch was the future or the way of the future or anything similar.

There will be more of it about in the very near future because the portable device market is nowhere near saturated.

Some of that will spill over onto some larger devices in spite of the extra cost- but it won't replace keyboard and mouse ( tho they may develop further).

The user will use whatever is appropriate for the task at hand.

Perhaps something will come along to replace all of them - thought control - who knows?

 

[legacy7955]

I never suggested touch was the future or the way of the future or anything similar.

There will be more of it about in the very near future because the portable device market is nowhere near saturated.

Some of that will spill over onto some larger devices in spite of the extra cost- but it won't replace keyboard and mouse ( tho they may develop further).

The user will use whatever is appropriate for the task at hand.

Perhaps something will come along to replace all of them - thought control - who knows?

I mentioned this in another thread but it seems appropriate here as well. The creator of Star Trek,
Gene Roddenberry it has been said was given access to ultra top secret DoD military space program lab technology back in the 1960s. Most folks don't know that NASA and JPL are NOT the only organizations in the USA that are deeply involved with space activities and research related to it.

Honestly I think the original ST was VERY perceptive (coincidence??) about where REAL technology was going and even some of the subsequent Star Trek series and movies were also somewhat accurate as well.

I think that touch will be a factor in future interactions with computers...but some things make me unsettled has anyone else here ever heard of "Transhumanism?". Research it.

That being said personally I have serious questions about integrating artificial technology within the human body....especially when it comes to aspects of mind and intelligence.

 

[Coke Robot]

I never suggested touch was the future or the way of the future or anything similar.

There will be more of it about in the very near future because the portable device market is nowhere near saturated.

Some of that will spill over onto some larger devices in spite of the extra cost- but it won't replace keyboard and mouse ( tho they may develop further).

The user will use whatever is appropriate for the task at hand.

Perhaps something will come along to replace all of them - thought control - who knows?

I mentioned this in another thread but it seems appropriate here as well. The creator of Star Trek,
Gene Roddenberry it has been said was given access to ultra top secret DoD military space program lab technology back in the 1960s. Most folks don't know that NASA and JPL are NOT the only organizations in the USA that are deeply involved with space activities and research related to it.

Honestly I think the original ST was VERY perceptive (coincidence??) about where REAL technology was going and even some of the subsequent Star Trek series and movies were also somewhat accurate as well.

I think that touch will be a factor in future interactions with computers...but some things make me unsettled has anyone else here ever heard of "Transhumanism?". Research it.

That being said personally I have serious questions about integrating artificial technology within the human body....especially when it comes to aspects of mind and intelligence.

I think the original Star Trek series definitely would show the design of Windows 8, modern, but yet retro. But that was the 60s, a LOT of sci-fi films were just AWFUL for futuristic set design, except for Star Trek though...

 

[constantG]

The UK military have been using touch screens in their Control Rooms for at least a decade and a half and most if not all of them have been presented on MS windows machines.

 

[FSeal]

The UK military have been using touch screens in their Control Rooms for at least a decade and a half and most if not all of them have been presented on MS windows machines.

Yes and so have banking machines and a million other process control, limited interaction and specific purpose computing devices using windows, linux and (even today) DOS. I've worked in the touchchscreen industry for 18 years and have seen millions of applications for them, but guess what? NONE of then have been on a general purpose desktop because it's just unfathomly stupid way to interact with such a complex and generalised UI with tasks that are dozens or even hundreds of times more complex than the simple button pushing of a Point of Sale or other touchscreen friendly application.

If touch on the desktop was a good idea it would have taken off years ago. It didn't because it's not.

 

[jimbo45]

The UK military have been using touch screens in their Control Rooms for at least a decade and a half and most if not all of them have been presented on MS windows machines.

Yes and so have banking machines and a million other process control, limited interaction and specific purpose computing devices using windows, linux and (even today) DOS. I've worked in the touchchscreen industry for 18 years and have seen millions of applications for them, but guess what? NONE of then have been on a general purpose desktop because it's just unfathomly stupid way to interact with such a complex and generalised UI with tasks that are dozens or even hundreds of times more complex than the simple button pushing of a Point of Sale or other touchscreen friendly application.

If touch on the desktop was a good idea it would have taken off years ago. It didn't because it's not.

Hopefully you aren't in the "Politically correct school" because the best comment I can make is

"Amen to that" and "Hallelujah" that someone else has sense here.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[mdmd]

Hello.

If a full size desktop touch keyboard for the PC
that had a hard surface was available to buy,
I would buy one.

I think the idea is there but the technology for inexpensive home use is not.
there is no inexpensive product of this type available
anyway...

again, sorry... Where have typewriters gone?
spring pushers will be around for years

 

[FSeal]

Hello.

If a full size desktop touch keyboard for the PC
that had a hard surface was available to buy,
I would buy one.

I think the idea is there but the technology for inexpensive home use is not.
there is no inexpensive product of this type available
anyway...

again, sorry... Where have typewriters gone?
spring pushers will be around for years

If your talking about a high resolution tablet with a pen interface like a centique, then yes that can be useful for /some/ things like artists, maybe photo work in Photoshop, though they work less well, than a mouse for other things like cad/3D as they require WAY too much arm movement to get the work done. Touch doesn't even enter the picture for this though

So other than in specialised cases, wall mounted info display or uses where the computer is really barely used at all for light mail and web browsing, no, touch still doesn't work even with those form factors...

 

[mdmd]

Hello.
Unfortunately,
I am talking about technology that does not exist.
No pens, nothing complex,
light mail, browsing, paint shop, dvd movie maker etc...
simple stuff for the home PC user.

Here:
I want a flat hard surface full size touch keyboard (no springs) for the PC
that's it!
it does not exist (must be inexpensive)

NO tablets, NO phones, NO laptops, NO pens
NO rubber, NO plastic, NO springs, NO buttons

 

[FSeal]

Hello.
Unfortunately,
I am talking about technology that does not exist.
No pens, nothing complex,
light mail, browsing, paint shop, dvd movie maker etc...
simple stuff for the home PC user.

Here:
I want a flat hard surface full size touch keyboard (no springs) for the PC
that's it!
it does not exist (must be inexpensive)

NO tablets, NO phones, NO laptops, NO pens
NO rubber, NO plastic, NO springs

Form over function eh?

I bet you could in fact find those very things today. HP sells a large touch enabled AIO computer and I saw a pic of an all glass touch keyboard just today (Glass Multi-Touch Keyboard & Mouse | Uncrate).

So uh.. there you go!

 

[mdmd]

Hey, That's the pic I posted a few pages back.
Nice, but too expensive $350.00 ? wow
This may be a projected initial price.

Not sure it is available ...
looks like the developer is looking for backers

NOT interested in AIO computers or Touch computer systems.


I remember paying $250 for IBM DOS 5.0 (five 3.5 disks) when it first came out.
paid mega bucks for an LCD monitor first out
paid mega bucks for a plasma TV first out

maybe .... TransluSense - Coming Soon

anyway, it's still NOT FLAT.
Not a fan of that wrist bump.
I want it to lay flat on the desktop and be no more than 1/4 inch thick,
like a wafer keyboard !!

A wireless solar indestructible (drop on hard floor safe)
wafer thin flat touch keyboard !

 

[legacy7955]

AIO were really being pushed by OEMs hard as far back as 6 years ago, but the reason they don't sell is because they are a bad value, and again with the AIO touch screens, except for the novelty factor nobody is interested they don't sell to the consumers, while the tower still sells reasonably well.

 

[mdmd]

I guess it was a business venture that was not very successful.
I like a system that is highly upgradeable and has a lot of horsepower.
Lots of folks have no use for touch technology.

edit: speculation only:
not really sure of what the sales statistics are for touch computers.

for sure: they will not receive a good review here!

 

[Coke Robot]

AIO were really being pushed by OEMs hard as far back as 6 years ago, but the reason they don't sell is because they are a bad value, and again with the AIO touch screens, except for the novelty factor nobody is interested they don't sell to the consumers, while the tower still sells reasonably well.

And today, the common form factor that is being pushed is the laptop model. Sure, somethings are better with a desktop, but the laptop is what's being sold A LOT more than a tower.