Karen Jenkin’s Blog

Ever since virtual reality simulators and the movie Minority Report appeared, we have been tantalised with the possibilities of human-computer interfaces beyond the keyboard, drawing tablet and screen. From recent events, it seems that at least one of these new types of interfaces is coming of age: the multi-touch screen. In general, a multi-touch screen allows people to manipulate data / objects and navigate in a much more flexible and “free form” way using gestures and touch. Let’s see some in action…

Earlier in the year at TED 2007, Jeff Han had the newest version of his very impressive multi-touch screen technology on display. Here’s the video of an impromptu demo from TED.

The official video can be found on Perceptive Pixel’s web site.

Meanwhile, Bill Gates recently appeared on a morning TV show in the USA to showcase Microsoft’s new Surface table (previously codenamed “Milan”). It is a 30-inch diagonal multi-touch screen in a horizontal table orientation. Here’s a video of that TV guest spot.

The word on the street is that the technology will probably make its way onto other consumer devices in the not-too-distant future, such as mobile phones. Of course, there are numerous business and educational applications that Microsoft will be looking to capture as well; Bill mentions restaurants as an example in the video.

So when Microsoft comes out with press releases and populist appearances for a technology, you know it is getting closer to the hands of the consumer; it has a targeted USA release date of late 2007. Mind you, at a cool $10,000USD for it’s projected launch price, it’s got a long way to go before it hits the masses!

Let’s see if 2008 kicks off real and affordable business scenarios beyond these demos.