Predicting the future is always a touchy business, especially when the business is touch computing. So Ars Technica’s Florence Ion spoke with Microsoft Research’s renowned visionary Bill Buxton in her far-reaching, four-page feature, “Finger-free phones, full body gesturing, and our ‘touchscreen’ future.”
The article covers touch solutions in development from a wide range of companies, including Microsoft. Early on, the article discusses some of the technology on display in Microsoft’s new Envisioning Center, and features the 3-D Haptic Touch technology Microsoft demonstrated at the TechFest event in April.
Also covered is Microsoft Research’s breakthrough Digits, which uses a sensor worn on the wrist to convert hand gestures into three-dimensional models, and Humantenna, which senses gestures using the body as an antenna.
Buxton discusses multitouch at length, and the project that eventually resulted in the Fresh Paint app for Windows 8. Among his observations: “There's still a rich future. The scope of it is much richer, and we won't be thinking of [touchscreens] as computers. If you're aware that there's a computer there, we've failed.”
Steve Clarke
Microsoft News Center Staff