I was seeing these multi-touch interaction experiments and couldn’t resist: just take a prototype-based development environment like Self‘s and put it inside one of those multi-touch-enabled displays. I think i would love such a programming environment. At least, it would be something different. Programming with Self is a bit like drawing with a good diagram editor: i take a figure, duplicate it, and modify the copy as needed; that’s quite close to the way one programs in Self, and it’s definitely a refreshing way to program. Now, i think most of you will agree that the multi-touch tricks in the video above have direct application to graphical editors, right?
No matter how silly you think this idea of mine is, don’t miss the video: it’s real fun.
Tags: programming
February 14, 2006 at 12:58 am
[...] It’s now officially OK to touch the screen. [via pm] [...]
March 16, 2006 at 12:37 am
Have you seen the fingerworks touchstream products? They were a surface able to sense contact and even proximity of fingers that functioned as a combined zero-force keyboard, mouse and gesture pad. They were a real, practical, production product with emacs gesture sets and everything. I say where, because they got bought by someone secretive with lots of money (apple) and closed down their production. 2nd hand touchstreams change hands for scary prices on ebay now.
March 16, 2006 at 1:11 am
tom, no, i didn’t know of fingerworks. In my opinion, the keyboard was a bit ugly, but for what i read they were a real improvement over vanilla ones. Thanks for the pointer!