My brother’s housemate sent me this, via my brother. At first I thought it was cute but only semi-relevant, but then I was swayed by the power of video. Check it out for yourself: Multi-Touch Interaction Research

The premise is that they can now make a touch-screen with a much greater degree of sensitivity and sophistication in how it registers the different possible kinds of touch, and which can handle an arbitrary number of simultaneous points of contact. They would also appear to have spent some time examining applications for the technology… Wow.

I’m convinced. This outdoes the mouse and the keyboard in so many ways… if you could make an FTIR surface which could give slightly with some kind of reactive ‘click’, or even just a suitably soft surface, why would you need a keyboard?

I’m visualising a workstation which throws away the existing desk paradigm and opts for something like the lovely ergonomics of the architects drafting desk: a raised slanted desktop which you sit at on a high stool, rather than on a chair. This makes a lot of sense if the surface you’re applying your hands to is the same one that you look at, and I speak from experience when I say it’s damn comfortable.