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104 Comments
- Wuss, on 10/14/2009, -2/+57Everything sounded like a decent idea to me... EXCEPT the 1:1 movement translation from the virtual touch surface onto the monitor.
There's 1 reason why mice will never be replaced by current touch formats, because the movements required are small, compact, efficient, and it does all this while it physically supports the natural curve of your palm.
Noone wants to spend all day having to move their entire arm, from their shoulder to their fingertips, to manipulate a desktop. Esp. with the trend to have bigger and bigger monitors, last thing I want to do is drink gatorade to fuel my swiping across 24" of surface area. - DivisibleByZero, on 10/14/2009, -4/+46So I have to zoom out to see a list of all my windows, rather than just looking down at my taskbar?
My initial impression is that the guy here uses macs primarily and has totally forgotten about some of the simple concepts Windows already does right, like maximizing windows, and alt-tab. - mishaneah, on 10/14/2009, -4/+38This is what Linux should be pursuing. A collaborative sandbox with early adopters and the tech savvy would be perfect for this. Instead, Linux has wasted the last 10 years creating brown windows XP themes.
- ileftfark, on 10/13/2009, -0/+27These ideas aren't new, but it's a good proof-of-concept. The projection/virtual keyboard has been batted around for years (see: Maplin), and the linear-based window flow is very similar to WebOS's "Cards". Still, a good presentation, but it seems like it would be a bit fatiguing to be 'finger painting' for 8 hours every day. Plus my left hand is so retarded it can barely hold a watch on my wrist, so I'm not sure dedicating all local tasks to the left hand's gestures is all that great. That said, I'd love to see one demonstrated at a CES.
- MrARPA, on 10/13/2009, -0/+24This all looks like it will require more effort than a _good_ mouse and multiple monitors. There's a reason mice are many decades old and yet still dominate the GUI interface ...
- LightningBoltU, on 10/14/2009, -1/+20Has this guy not hear of the taskbar or something? I mean the solution is fine and all but it's not as good as just having all windows represented as small bars with icons and name at the bottom of the screen. You just click the bar and up comes the window. Having to constantly dragging crap around just to get to what is basically alt+tab seems extremely annoying.
Still the basic idea seems cool and should work somewhat better in certain situation but I doubt it will replace the mouse. - metik, on 10/14/2009, -0/+18What i don't get is most of the commands is press a few fingers and move them. Why not just press a few keys on the keyboard then move the mouse to navigate. Press 2 keys and move the mouse to zoom. Press 3 keys and move the mouse left and right to change windows. In their example you are limited to your five fingers. With a keyboard you can change which 5 keys you are pressing. So you could theoretically have as many fingers as you would like, just only able to press 5 at a time.
People really need to look into video games as a way to learn whats best in navigation. Look at the PS3/xbox controller. Look at PC games that have you managing multiple things like spore/simcity/world of warcraft. Does 3d navigation to get to certain menus in WoW help or hinder?
Should we really be changing the way people navigate at all on the computer? Most have not gotten the one we are using down yet. I still to this day have to teach people to press ctrl-c to copy.
/rant (i am bored, tired, and have to work tomorrow, im sorry) - lars5, on 10/14/2009, -1/+18i was really impressed until i thought:
1. keyboard?
2. does this mean when in the middle of a task you can't take your hands off the bad or else you lose your coordinates? what if i'm going through a menu and then cover my mouth to sneeze. how would i judge exactly where on the touch interface to replace my hands? do the menus close? do i have to start over again? - enrq, on 10/14/2009, -0/+16I like the multitouch input mechanism but not the 1D window arrangement. although there could be a better way to organize windows in 2D, most of the time I overlap windows on purpose.
- deepak1uw, on 10/13/2009, -9/+24An operating system just like this would be awesome!!
- cawfee, on 10/14/2009, -1/+15Let's see:
Skype
AIM
KeePass
Foobar2000
4-5 Folders
Photoshop
uTorrent
Firefox
EditPad
Actively switching between all of them. Granted they're almost all fullscreened, but good luck visualizing them all efficiently without using more than 2 monitors. - Paal, on 10/14/2009, -0/+12I agree that my left hand feels retarded too -- the funny thing is, the human brain is really good at mapping functionality through our hands (tools, instruments, etc.)
I would guess that, much like learning to type, it's awkward at first, but becomes very natural over not too long a time. - blitzkriegpunk, on 10/14/2009, -0/+9Incorporate touch sensitivity settings as we do for mice.
- scotchw, on 10/14/2009, -3/+12Yah, I can't possibly imagine any way to scale the desktop surface to fit a smaller touch surface </s>
Oh, wait, do exactly what I just said - kingfoot, on 10/14/2009, -0/+8This is a novel solution to the modern touch screen displays we are slowly adapting to. The only vice I hold with this concept, is the giant "pad" needed to include the control mechanism and the keyboard. I would want a system in which the touch pad actually displays the keyboard when I'm ready to type, activated by the OS, or possibly activated by a standard tactile button on the side of the pad.
I would also like to add that the limitations of the horizontal application system is still too limited. I can understand the ease of use this way, but why not instead add that second dimension back, and only restricting the use to either the x or the y axis instead of both at once. Visually this could mean having the same horizontal layout only this time per application. And each application is stored on its own "layer" vertically. This would better organize the applications, and lead to even quicker and easier management of the same system. Adding the little bit of edge space to the top and bottom, and removing the tactile keyboard in favor of a touch based via the same touch pad, would greatly enhance this concept. - usernr1337, on 10/14/2009, -0/+7this wont work... 5gui is a better idea (5 fingers only)
oh and they should add gestures like these - when all 5 fingers are on the pad removing 4 of them triggers a specific task , that specific task could wary for each finger (the software could tell which finger remains by counting form the left or something)... this way there could be a second-button-click without any 'extended-sensor-surface-or-whatever'... - Super6, on 10/14/2009, -0/+7All your messengers should take up more than half of your 2nd monitor and you need to look at them unless you're about to start a convo. uTorrent should be minimized to tray unless you've just added something. KeePass should be in the tray unless you're entering the master password.
Folders are only needed when you start something but they and firefox can go in one monitor as your source section and photoshop, what you are presumably working on, can be on the other monitor.
The system presented wouldn't help you, clicking the taskbar is easier than doing all that dragging nonsense. - georanson, on 10/14/2009, -0/+7that would take some getting used to but i think i would have it down in a week and i could be more productive probably
- aquapete, on 10/14/2009, -0/+6i really dont see this become mainstream or seeing it in offices and workplaces around the world.
that doesnt mean i dont want it =) i would definitely use this in my house when playing around or surfing, whether at my desktop or sitting on my couch plugged into my tv. - scotchw, on 10/14/2009, -0/+6Well, then you obviously need more practice using a stylus and pad. Like, another 10 min or so.
It's not like there's anything intuitive about a mouse. Just watch most grandparents try to use a computer. It's just that most of "us" grew up using a computer, so it seems natural. - tinkafoo, on 10/14/2009, -1/+7Instead of navigating from left-to-right, how about up-and-down for apps, and left-to-right for individual documents?
- marshalkowski, on 10/14/2009, -0/+5Cool concept. Not without its issues, but fantastic work for a summer project. There would definitely be a learning curve with this--more or less than the mouse I couldn't say since I pretty much grew up with a mouse. It's not a perfect solution, but it's good to see people are thinking about it.
- Lonandubh, on 10/14/2009, -0/+4That's because you've got a further remove: your stylus. My GF (sorry, forgot, people on Digg are all single losers) this girl i know (who clearly isn't ever on the internet...), actually prefers to do her photoshopping with her USB tablet & stylus than with my tablet computer's on screen stylus.
- Calcularius, on 10/14/2009, -0/+4neat, but not new.
http://www.tactiva.com/tactapad.html - DivisibleByZero, on 10/14/2009, -0/+4At work, I usually do, but I shouldn't have to one-by-one scroll through them.
Visual Studio and Firefox are the ones I use 99% of the time, so I keep one maximized in each monitor. For anything else, I can quickly look at the taskbar to find it. I don't want to have to make complex zoom out features to make up for that. - nshady, on 10/14/2009, -0/+4I like a lot of it very much. My main worry is that having other windows peeking in at the edges could be distracting. I like being able to focus on one window at a time. I hope that with three finger pinch you'd be able to expand a window to fullscreen. Another lingering question - would it really be more productive? They aren't really espousing any multitouch features outside of what you can basically do on Mac laptops now; there's no real use for two hands.
- Puppytwo, on 10/14/2009, -0/+4Cheap tablets aren't that good
- 0xception, on 10/14/2009, -2/+6Right now i have,
firefox
chrome
7 terminal's (some connected to servers via ssh, some local)
eclipse
pidgin (which has two windows)
banshee music player
miro
sticky notes app
text editor
2 file browsers
This is probably less then average for me in a day. I think rather then a linear progression of apps this idea would work better with workspaces and windowed apps in those. the gestures could move between workspaces and move windows quickly around on the screen with quick flicks of two fingers to position a window to either the top bottom or the sites or corners, an exploding gesture on a selected window could quickly maximize the window and back down. Hell someone should start working on these gestures w/ the multi touch Xserver and integrate it into gnome 3.0. - stufflebean, on 10/14/2009, -0/+4I thought about that, but really, there's no reason that this has to completely replace the current keyboard/mouse paradigm. This seems like the kind of thing that could probably be implemented on top of a smart windowing system without affecting anything underneath.
For example, most of the modern operating systems have something which lets them grab one window's image (the task flip thing in Vista, Exposé on Mac, various work-alikes on Linux). Putting that into this slidey 2d thing should be a piece of cake once we have compositing integrated into all the various window managers. - Lonandubh, on 10/14/2009, -0/+4Another thing they should incorporate is sequential tapping; drumming fingers is a lot faster and less complex than pressing on three points then dragging your hand.
- DanielPhermous, on 10/14/2009, -1/+5'The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a "mouse." There is no evidence that people want to use these things. I dont want one of these new fangled devices.' - John C. Dvorak, San Francisco Examiner, February 19th, 1984
- HonoredMule, on 10/14/2009, -0/+3The system seemed to throw out/forget the idea of tabs (linear collections within the parent linear arrangement?) also, and offered no hint as to how it would effectively handle persistent dialogs, floating tool windows, and other such small or secondary/background elements that are crucial for more advanced applications and workflows.
I have over 30 Firefox tabs and 6 Notepad++ tabs open right now, which without tabbing would be a ridiculous mound of /maybe/ related windows that can't possibly be organized usefully in a single non-hierarchical linearity. Most of these browser tabs would take at least several seconds to reopen if closed. You'll be prying tabs out of my cold, dead fingers.
The whole linear system argues that completely unmanaged, random 2d window placement is bested by linerar arrangement, but that's a completely pointless comparison. My 2d window placement isn't unmanaged or random. It's where I put the windows to make optimal use of the screen space I have for only as much screen space as each app needs and arranged in functional/interaction-useful collections. In 1d space, only 2 apps can be side-by-side, and every app is required to make maximal use of rigid (but not necessarily consistent from computer to computer) vertical space and minimal requirement for horizontal space. Linear arrangement can't possibly compete. Besides, the whole idea seems to be geared somewhat toward dealing with the advent of widescreen monitors, but there's a better way...ditch widescreen monitors when doing real work.
And metik is right. Having plenty of sensible hotkeys still trumps any new innovation or other brilliant ideas for the GUI by many orders of magnitude. - DulcetTone, on 10/14/2009, -0/+3The professional voice-over with his pausing to express concern is hideously off-putting. They do this a lot in advertising with "real people", primarily women. It's manipulative, and never comes off well.
- 4degrees, on 10/14/2009, -0/+3on the subject of desktop clutter... Compiz Wall or Cube FTW!
- ophello, on 10/14/2009, -0/+3Music blows.
Cool concept though. Except...vertical labels are not very smart. - 4degrees, on 10/14/2009, -0/+3Take it from a lefty having to do things for the most part the "righty" way, you get used to it. Ambidexterity is quite useful. i play guitar and violin righty, can bat, throw and catch righty and lefty. I have even learned to hand-write backwards to prevent my left hand from smudging things(downside is, everything is right justified).
- Peko, on 10/14/2009, -0/+3All youu guys telling me your personal window cool story bro misunderstood.
I'm talking about the 'theoretical person' in the video who has about 8 windows open - but all on screen and overlapping at the same time. Like in a 1024x768 monitor there are about 7 320x240 windows.
Yeah, I'll have 10 windows open too. But I have this thing - it's a taskbar. - HonoredMule, on 10/14/2009, -0/+3So many applications waste space with useless garbage. We save it by intentionally overlaying another app's content that is actually valuable and needs to be seen.
- clintonbaptiste, on 10/14/2009, -0/+310/GUI is a solution to a problem that doesn't really exist. I can understand how some professionals might benefit from this interface but for 99% of people:
Windows 7 + well designed programs + dual monitors + high-end keyboard/mouse = a more or less flawless user experience - Vivifyer, on 10/14/2009, -0/+3I digg that the voice over sounds like Patrick Bateman.
- Super6, on 10/14/2009, -0/+3The human eye has a 2 degree section of focus, you couldn't possibly do anything with all 4 fingers that you can't already do with a mouse.
Honestly the windows 7 window management system is damn near perfect. Just hold and drag a maximize window to restore, keep dragging it to the top of the 2nd monitor and it will maximize there. Drag a window to the side of the screen and does a 1/2 maximize to that half of the monitor. - Puppytwo, on 10/14/2009, -1/+4The thing is, a small touch pad on a big monitor would make it difficult to make precise clicks with fingers, let alone a fatty trying to use this.
- Brian818, on 10/14/2009, -0/+3GUI interface=Graphical user interface interface
kinda like when people say: ATM machine - LarkStew, on 10/14/2009, -0/+2Linear window layouts aren't new, the Amiga Workbench had screens 25 years ago, they were laid out vertically. Although useful in some situations, making every window like that would be irritating.
Also using ten fingers to navigate would be like playing the piano, I can imagine it would take a lot of practice. - valderon, on 10/14/2009, -0/+2Its interesting, but pretty flawed. The linear approach to windows is too limited. Personally, I would prefer have a large environment I can move around in. The user should be able to create and personalize their work approach. Also alot of his interface type for the windows is displayed vertically, unfortunately that's a very odd way to read. The 1:1 movement is also too much motion for everyday use.
I think removing the mouse and using all ten fingers on the table in front of you is the future, but it wont be 1:1 motion. The motion should be similar to the motion we now use to move a mouse. I think we should first remove the mouse from our UI design. At this point I think some tangible type of keyboard is still needed. I think replacing the mouse with our hand is the first step. - bshock, on 10/14/2009, -0/+2Interesting, but pointless.
Ten points of selection only make sense if there's a compelling reason to make ten contacts in short order, such as with a keyboard. Otherwise, you're still just selecting one thing at a time.
The new screen organization system misses the primary point of multiple visible windows: our human working memory is limited, so we want to extend it by seeing multiple images at once.
The touchpad and the screen organization seem almost mutually exclusive of each other. - DivisibleByZero, on 10/14/2009, -1/+3Heh, ever used a mac? 10 small windows scattered and overlapping each other is pretty much the way Apple thinks things should work.
Example:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/54/125996924_d8d04a ... - senixon, on 10/14/2009, -0/+2This would be awesome to use for navigating the apps, but it also has limitations such as, we still need a keyboard to type, touchscreen is great, but lacks feedback. Also I don't really see this working for laptops very well, unless the whole keyboard area is replaced by the touchpad... Still I'd love to take it for a spin.
- diggronin, on 10/14/2009, -0/+2True, but I'm sure with practice the time investment required to fluidly navigate with this input controller would be worth it. Learning to type on a keyboard was tricky, but once you get it down, you can do it without even thinking about where the letters are and it increases your productivity.
- Alfarin, on 10/14/2009, -1/+3It's situations like this where I want to be able to digg multiple times!
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