Is touch the future?

[BillWindows]

touch is just another option. more options is a good thing.

that's why I use a trackball instead of a mouse. that's why I use a touchscreen. more choices mean more people have different ways that fit their needs.

Exactly my sentiments, it's not just about touch it's being able to do what you want when you want, a mixture of touch, voice, mouse and keyboard whatever floats your boat.
Windows 8 gives you more choice.

 

[labeeman]

touch is just another option. more options is a good thing.

that's why I use a trackball instead of a mouse. that's why I use a touchscreen. more choices mean more people have different ways that fit their needs.

When you get to be my age your arms are too short to reach the touchscreen (poor close vision). lol

 

[mikiep]

I don't have a touch screen but I can imagine my arms getting tired over time from being extended fully pushing things around on the screen. Have to keep your hands relatively clean too always, ruin it with potato chip and cheese twist crumbs.

 

[BillWindows]

touch is just another option. more options is a good thing.

that's why I use a trackball instead of a mouse. that's why I use a touchscreen. more choices mean more people have different ways that fit their needs.

When you get to be my age your arms are too short to reach the touchscreen (poor close vision). lol

Thats why they have tablets, hold it in one hand type with the other.

I've got a 24" monitor at the moment, but I can see me getting a smaller, maybe 17" touch in the future so I can sit closer and reach up and touch when I need to swipe a screen out of the way or something else where touch would make more sense.

 

[BillWindows]

I don't have a touch screen but I can imagine my arms getting tired over time from being extended fully pushing things around on the screen. Have to keep your hands relatively clean too always, ruin it with potato chip and cheese twist crumbs.

You've got the wrong idea about touch, it's not about touching your monitor continually, just when it makes sense to do so. Sometimes it's just easier to touch a point on the screen or move something out of the way.

 

[dirtyvu]

yeah, it's not about using only touch. or using only keyboard or using only mouse. there are situations that each is best at. I'm not constantly touching my monitor.

 

[Ray8]

If I used touch all the time, my screens would look like the rear windows in my 4WD, where our two Labs find touch the best thing ever.

 

[Coke Robot]

Touch is one aspect, along with gesture and voice. All three go together to form the NUI, or Natural User Interface. Now THAT, is the future.

With the Leap Motion, you don't need to waving your arms around as you can do some small gestures as it recognizes finer input like that.

And no, a touch PC doesn't give you "gorilla arm." You have to be either REALLY misinformed, or doing it SERIOUSLY wrong. You can't take a non-touch set up and think a touch set up will work like that. It doesn't. You have to use a different setup that needs you to be closer to the screen, like if you were at a desk and using a laptop normally.

Voice control is already there, it needs refinement. In Windows for example, there has been voice control of the WHOLE UI versus a search box. Voice control of the UI and dictation is rather legit to use and is surprisingly good on a typical laptop mic.


I have to say about the gorilla arm thing again with touch, tell the elderly that enjoy using touchscreens and ipads because using a computer mouse aggravates their arthritis and tell that to growing section of society that is getting arthritis due to constant typing, texting, and mouse usage.

 

[dirtyvu]

voice is a really great part of the user interface. I grew up on Dragon NaturallySpeaking and while it was great and heavy duty, there was too much training involved. but things have come a long way since then.

I use the voice navigation for the Xbox 360 and that thing is amazing. no training. it can hear me 10 feet across the room. pretty darn accurate. I'm hoping the tech they use for the Xbox gets integrated into Windows. While Windows does have tech similar to Dragon, it still requires too much training. I'm pretty sure the voice recognition on the Xbox is cloud-based computing done at data centers because when you're not connected to the Internet, I don't think it works. Actually, I'm not sure. Something to test out...

another tech I think would be great to integrate into the user interface is what was shown at CES was the eye tracking. it worked amazingly well in the demos that the reporters participated in.

 

[esspee]

Touch is fantastic for phone/tablet like devices you hold close to your body but sitting at a desk or in front of a large screen tv is another story. There I think voice, eye tracking and gestures will probably become the dominant interface once the tech is able to be refined. Something like MS Kinect is a good start but desktop devices need to be small enough to seamlessly fit into a monitor and smart enough to distinguish the wiggle of a finger.