Having a non-focused, non-active window arbitrarily take up 1/3 of my viewable monitor at all times would drive me nuts.<p>It also makes no sense to me to go to the trouble of allowing a user to use all ten fingers, and then restricting application interaction to only two or three fingers. I work in rich, deep applications with tons of controls and buttons, if I'm going to go to the trouble of learning to use ten fingers to navigate a computer, you better allow me to make use of all of them withing the individual programs that I'm using.
Talk about multi-touch reminds me of a friend's perennial complaint, "The future of interfaces seems designed to screw me over."<p>He has a congenital deformity of the arms, but he can type (and is one of those clacky-IBM keyboard fetishists). With his feet, he can use mice and controllers. But multi-touch systems are beyond his ability - while he can pivot and shift to type remarkably quickly, he can't get more than one hand on something at the same time. Worse, each hand is effectively only one digit for him.<p>And then, there are the folks who don't even have his degree of dexterity.<p>I can't help thinking that it might be a good thing for general interface designers to consider the implications of disabilities for users of these designs, instead of shrugging that off onto providers of interfaces specifically for the disabled.
What I find most compelling about this design is that it would support existing applications. This is a proposal for a new Window Manager, not a ground-up rewrite. Looking at the local context commands, it seems like traditional top-level menus could be automatically converted to something left-hand friendly.
It seems pretty obvious to me that the most efficient and intuitive way to manage windows is just a boring list at the bottom/side of the screen, but I do hold out hope, like everyone else, that it turns out to be some flashy zooming 3D multitouch thing.<p>It is refreshing though, to see research that dispenses with the legacy of GUI convention we've built up over the years, instead of just piling on new features.
While we're rethinking the human interface, could we please stop staggering typing keys and put frequently used keys like carriage return and backspace under strong fingers? [1]<p>I was disappointed to see at the end of the 10gui video a concept keyboard with staggered keys and with backspace way over in the corner. If we can't move keyboards past the constraints imposed by mechanical typewriters, what hope do we have at changing the mouse paradigm?<p>[1] Typematrix is the only keyboard maker I know of that currently does this while still building a relatively standard keyboard (and something that could be integrated into a laptop).
That's cool as far as it goes. But what about the keyboard?<p>The mouse is just one aspect of the computer interaction. I can't remove my keyboard from my desk just to make room for this mouse replacement. The keyboard seems a big barrier (literally!) for getting this device on the desktop.
This basically already exist(ed): <a href="http://www.fingerworks.com/ST_product.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.fingerworks.com/ST_product.html</a><p>Apple bought them up and stopped making their products (but we got multitouch on the iPhone, an interesting trade-off).
There's a similar device I read about with a hardware prototype that actually works. It doesn't have the software support of 10gui but it's basically a resistive touchscreen mapped to keypress macros (copy/paste, app switching, etc).<p>Here's some pictures:<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pauric/sets/72157616093748066/with/3488471659/" rel="nofollow">http://www.flickr.com/photos/pauric/sets/72157616093748066/w...</a>
I'm looking forward to use a multitouch touchpad with my desktop keyboard just as I currently do with my laptop. However I will definitely want to keep a mouse also when in need for more precision for tasks like photo editing etc.<p>10gui seems to be a very cool prototype and I guess that Apple and Microsoft are already working on things like this. I also spotted a weakness of this demo: 10gui uses the little finger to invoke contextual menus. Most of the people who cannot touch type with all ten fingers (and my guess this is about the 99% of all computer users :) will find this uncomfortable.
I'd like to see it with the pad acting as the keyboard, too. though, that's more software implementation, while the video is talking hardware interface.<p>Although, the problem with that kind of implementation is that it doesn't have the tactile feel of a keyboard. however, iPhone users seem to have acclimated after first bitching about it.
They've certainly put lots of thought into the design of this device/software. But the whole time I kept thinking: "what about the keyboard?" (Eventually, at the end, they showed the device in a traditional trackpad position below a keyboard.)<p>I wish they had considered a way to make the keyboard a part of the device. Perhaps an on-screen keyboard, some haptics? The challenge with that part of the input device is that to touch type, you need that spacial reference a keyboard gives you.
I wonder if they could combine the keyboard with the touch surface. Not by having the surface be the keyboard, but by overlaying a traditional keyboard with touch sensitive key-sized tiles that together make a touch-sensitive area. Keys should still be pressable, but when you treat it like a touch surface it should behave so. If the gaps between keys are snall enough it should work for fingers. (not styluses though)
The video mentions the problem of always having one's hands in the way with a direct interface. This could also be alleviated by moving the hands underneath the display ala the capacitive mouse from Microsoft Research: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2009/10/video-microsoft-research-demoes-five-multitouch-mice.ars" rel="nofollow">http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2009/10/video-microsoft...</a>
As for a keyboard, why not have the virtual buttons relative to where the the fingers are placed?<p>As in, place all eight fingers onto the pad and this automatically becomes home row. Simply strike above and below home row. Depending on the finger you moved, it'll know the key you're striking. I rarely have more than one finger off home row, per hand, when typing.<p>You heard it here first.
Interesting, would be cool to see worked up with one of thse
<a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/22358/" rel="nofollow">http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/22358/</a><p>(I saw Ken Perlin of the nyu media lab give a presentation on that earlier in the year and it was incredible, high resolution and cheap to make)
Scrolling alone already had decreased a lot of tension in my arms. 10/GUI would probably have great effect on RSI reduction.<p>It is amazing how intuitive touch can be. I just love the multi-touch on the touchpad that Ubuntu for example supports. I never knew my old Thinkpad T43 would be able to do it but it does.
Like this example of bold but concrete thinking on a future computing metaphor.<p>Two of the concepts seem very heavily Palm Pre-inspired: The window management scheme (reminiscent of 'cards') and the gesture areas on each side, one of which is used to launch apps just like the Pre
I'd rather have more modifier keys and mouse buttons or modifier mouse buttons. Instead of pinching with fingers, you could move the mouse while holding another mouse button. For three or more finger gestures, you could hold down another mouse button.
I'm not quite convinced that multi-touch panel that large would be practical, but smaller, one hand version could be nice. Imho it would also be better if the panel was on the side of a keyboard(ie in the place of numpad and arrow keys), not under.
"Who would build something like this?<p>Just as in the early days of the mouse and windowed GUI, a system based upon 10/GUI's principles would likely be best suited to a systems builder capable of full vertical integration."<p>I wonder who they're thinking of.
It certainly looks cool. I am just not sure about the ergonomics. What would really be awesome is not having to lift my hand at all by switching between touch mode and keyboard mode at a flick of a finger.
I wonder if they could with a tap bring up an virtual keyboard on the touchpad were the fingers already are and do away with a keyboard altogether. This sort of harkens back to the chord keyset.
A ten finger multitouch pad for desktops makes perfectly sense. The multitouch pad on mac book pro is way more pleasant to use than a mouse, but can't be used with an external monitor.
Multitouch innovators should take heed. A lot of the NUIGroup community is centered around hardware innovations, which is cool and all, but we need more and more software!
"A single finger manipulates items inside of an application. <insert finger painting>"<p>Ding. Ding. Ding. We have #fail.<p>It's pretty cool and all, but this isn't going to change anyone's life. The best idea here is just putting a big touch pad on the desktop in front of your monitor.