An anecdote with regard to the usefulness of a touch screen PC:
My brother uses a touch screen monitor in his kitchen (with which he can control all of the lights, security cameras and built-in audio systems in his house) so that he doesn’t have to dig out the Bluetooth keyboard and mouse for most routine tasks. The actual computer resides in the basement.
The main beneficiaries of touch-screen technology will be the manufacturers of screen cleaning solutions.
On a similar note, I’ve often thought it’d be great to have a display in the kitchen, for recipes, except that I don’t want to have to deal with a keyboard in a dirty environment. In that case, I can certainly see a touch screen being better, due to having fewer moving parts, and being easier to keep clean than a mouse-keyboard combo.
That said, I agree that for most tasks, the keyboard and mouse are the way to go. I’m sure some of that has to do with how much current software is designed for them, but just look at how much of computer-work involves typing, and I think it’s clear that the keyboard’ll be around for a while. As for the mouse, well, I’ve already got something that I can intuitively move around the screen while looking at said screen. Why is my finger better than a cursor?
This.
Humans tend to be…greasy. And oily. I just don’t see the appeal of a screen that requires us filthy apes to paw it constantly. Keyboards and mice are already known to be dens of plague and filth, but at least we don’t need to view an image through them.
why must it be either or?
The story breaking today, large screen iPod touch coming in fall '09
Personally, I don’t get it. I have a iPhone. The touch screen is a compromise because it allows a keyboard without additional bulk. If I had to use it all day long like a tablet I would go crazy. In addition to the greasy fingerprint part, the other problem is I don’t have transparent hands so I can’t see the screen while I’m touching it.
This is true. The TouchSmart PC has a glass screen that can be cleaned with regular glass cleaner, but only when turned off. My kids love the touch screen feature so I’m frequently cleaning greasy kid prints off there.
Mice are pretty unnecessary for CLIs, so (outside of things like the PARC) they really weren’t needed for the first few waves of personal computers. I’ll admit though that the evolution of GUIs sorely needed mice. (I do like the comeback of touch pads in laptops… I loved playing with my Koala Pad on 1980s computers; now if the lightpen would become mainstream again, I’d have all my early GUI control devices back.)
No kidding. Keep your dirty paws away from my screens.
I work in GIS (mapping) and HATE it when someone starts pointing and touching my screen. It makes a mess.
Sure, it would be OK for some VERY limited uses, but for true computer work? No way.
Yeah, these limited applications are fine for touchscreen.
He’s not working on the computer using a touchscreen, though, is he?
I worked for a while on research with tabletop computing and I’m still fairly well versed with the research literature on touch. I’m somewhat of a skeptic about touch interfaces but there’s a lot of stuff we know already touch is suited and unsuited for.
First of all, I agree with most people in this thread that touch is only of limited use on the desktop. The ergonomics of the situation is just too complicated but not for the reason most people think. Mitsubishi Research has done a fascinating year long study on the prolonged use and found that fatigue or viewing angles was not a major problem when set at a drafting table style angle. The real problem is that touch and physical keyboards have a hard time playing well with each other. The area under which touch is comfortable is actually surprisingly small, around half a meter in radius. It’s very difficult to accommodate two different devices within this radius.
Touch is great for wall mounted & table mounted displays where there is no room for a keyboard and mouse. Touch is great for mobile devices (including really tiny devices. As runcible spoon pointed out, one of the surprising advantages of touch is that it can make devices which are easy to clean. This turns out to be an important advantage in a number of domain areas from hospitals to rugged computing.
However, the biggest focus for touch research right now is the area of collaborative user interfaces. The main advantage of touch is that my interactions remain visible so that everyone in a group is aware of what everyone else on the group is doing around the device.
One very cool area which is receiving a lot of attention is how touch can be used for education. It turns out that if you put a bunch of kids around a touch based game, each kid starts learning from others about how to do thing and what works and doesn’t work. You get a spontaneous bootstrapping effect where kids start teaching other kids.
Another very cool thing is using touch to foster spontaneous interaction. If you place a touch powered device in a largely impersonal setting such as a mall, all of a sudden, the ability to simultaneously use the device forms an ice-breaker which makes it acceptable for people who were previously strangers to start talking to each other.
I think all of these things are very cool but I’m skeptical that all of this stuff will make it to the marketplace because so much of it depends on establishing a platform on which developers can develop touch apps and this is something which I don’t think is going to happen.
Who says you have to be standing up? Do you really think we will still be using mice in 100 years? Anything is possible but i think we would find a better system by then. Its all about the software. Somebody like myself who does a lot of video and sound editing a system that allows me to use my hands to navigate would save a lot of time. It is all about the software and if it is intelligent enough to be used correctly. I have the feeling that the software will lack a lot in usability which will deter most people into using systems like this. A mouse can only move in 2 dimensions. You can only fit so many buttons on it. I mean after 10 buttons things just get to busy. I think that some type of mind input system may beat any kind of advanced touch screen to the market. The Japanese are making lots of breakthroughs with that technology. I do think touch screens will have their place. The first operating systems were 1 dimensional. Just text on a screen. A GUI gave two dimensions and required a mouse to use effectively. When we reach the point that we have so much information and capability we require 3 dimensions to use and sort it I imagine some sort of touch screen or motion would be required.
It’s hard for me to imagine what anything will be like in 100 years. Computers especially. I think that we’ll probably still be using a separate input device for some, maybe even most, situations. Whether it’s a mouse, or a pen, or a trackball, or something entirely new, is hard to say, but I think for some applications it will always be a necessity.
I don’t need more buttons on my input device to achieve sufficient interactivity. I use a wacom tablet, using left-click and right-click (and double-click). I only use additional combo-keys on rare occasions, which is always my keyboard keys (ctrl, alt, shift). I don’t middle-click, or use a separate scroll wheel.
Touch screens have some use, but they are hardly a mouse replacement for home computers. If they were in any way more useful or preferable, we would have seen them by now, since the technology exists, as evidenced by touchscreen laptops and handhelds.
I think that eye tracking will probably be the mouse semi replacement. You are generally looking at where the mouse is pointing anyway. Beyond that, brain scanners. My roomate got one that looked like a weird headband that could do a few actions. It was glitchy though, and you had to train yourself to use it, but its a very first gen product.
I’d love a good mouse replacement… Theres not enough fingers for most games today, and its a shame to waste half of them just on 2 buttons and a pointer.
In the future, we might be controlling computers by thought control.
Ultimate couch potato. You don’t even have to move your finger.
Well I’ll buck the thrust of this thread. I can’t WAIT to get a good touch screen PC. I hate using a mouse. I love the idea of being able to flick around the browser, and touch what I want the first time around. The keyboard will be around until we can find a better way of adding information, but for just about everything else, I’d be more than happy to use my finger or a stylus. ESPECIALLY for photo editing, and art programs. I’ve seen the tablets, ans while they are very cool, cheap they are not. i’d rather buy a whole PC that splits the difference in the quality of the technology than have to have an expensive separate device to get the features I’d like.
btw, my experience is that touch rocks when it is on a tablet on your lap and you don’t need to do much typing. The posture is about the same as reading a book and your hands are already at the right place.
My ideal input device would be something that reads my finger motions and gestures over the keyboard without needing to touch anything. Technology for it is not particularly far away, I think (I would even agree to wear something on my fingertips if I had to).
Do you use it in place of the mouse? I’ve been thinking about getting one for that.
That’s what I’m thinking. Imagine you have a UI control that adjusts something (font size or anything else where you pick from a range of numbers). You touch it to activate, then rotate your finger to tune the dial. Another flick deactivates it so you can do other things.
Things like these that would allow new, clever UI elements is the future. It’s all about software (and multitouch and whatever it is that lets you use your hand creatively). You can’t think of it as “doing what the mouse does, ie point-and-click, but with a finger.”
Of course, a reconfigurable “keyboard” would be better. I’ve had the idea bouncing around in my head to take the concept behind those push-pin toys (the ones that make an image of whatever you place them over), and attach linear magnetic actuators to each pin.
Yep. I’ve been using one for about ten years, so when I use a mouse I need to reacquaint myself.
The best thing about them is that you have to move your arm more, so it doesn’t give wrist problems.
Though it may give shoulder problems.