Multitouch Coming of Age with the IPhone

For years, the touchscreen has been the interface of tourist information kiosks and ATMs. Soon, though, it will be making a jump from its humble beginnings into greatness. There is a new technology coming that will allow touchscreens to respond o inputs from multiple fingers, or even multiple users. This technology is called multitouch.

This technology could bring about huge changes to our interactions with computers. Simultaneous finger inputs could let computers process more complex actions than pointing and clicking. For example, a person could resize a photo by grabbing two corners with your fingers and manipulating the image.

Researchers have been developing this technology for decades. A multitouch system w demonstrated in 1984 by researcher Bill Buxton. When asked about multitouch recently, Buxton said, "Any of the pointing devices that people have used to date are controlling a single point on a screen, like a mouse. With multitouch, not only can you control more than one point, you can control more than one thing. I've been arguing for the importance of this technology for years. I have two hands and I have four fingers and a thumb on each hand, and I'd like to be able to use them."

The multitouch interface obviously has potential, but it didn't start to generate a buzz until recently. The biggest news in multitouch, by far, was Apple's announcement of its iPhone in January. Among other innovations, it has a full-face multitouch screen.

Researchers at Microsoft have been working with Play-Anywhere, which would interact with both people and physical objects by using cameras and a front-projection display.

You might worry that multitouch will render your trusty mouse obsolete, but fear not. "Look in your toolbox; you have hammers and screwdrivers. Both are designed to push long, pointy pieces of metal into wood, and both are useful in different ways. Multitouch is just one more tool in our bag of tricks."

The biggest question about mulitouch technology revolves around how sophisticated and sensitive it is. Instruments like the iPhone will face a plethora of daily abuses, and the expectations placed n its performance are very high. It has looked amazing in demonstrations, no doubt. But no one outside of Apple has had a chance to use it for more than a few minutes at a time. The expectations for the iPhone are high, but Apple has some experience with touch-sensitive interfaces. How many people do you know these days that don't own an iPod?

Source:

"Buzzword: Multitouch Computing" (http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/technology_news/4212910.html)