Sunday, July 29, 2012

Pinch My Mac

The other day I opened my Macbook Pro and noticed a bunch of fingerprints on the screen.  I turned to my wife and asked if she knew why I have fingerprints on my computer screen.  She was surprised and immediately grabbed some wipes (she hates smudges more than I do).  I went about my work and didn't think about it again - until yesterday.  Each week we do a family dinner with the kids, their significant others and my in-laws.  After dinner yesterday, I notice that my father-in-law is doing some web surfing on the Macbook Pro.  He gets to a web site with some pictures of cars (he's a big car guy) and then he does something I found strange.  He starts "pinching" the screen on the Macbook.  I asked him why he was doing that and he told me he's trying to make the picture bigger like he does on his iPhone.  Ahhhh-- now I know where those fingerprints came from!

What I learned from this experience is tablets and smartphones have changed the way we interact with technology.  My 71 year-old father-in-law found it intuitive to pinch a picture on a screen to change the size.  This method worked on his iPhone so it should work on a computer too.  Right?  

The New Media Consortium (NMC) published their 2012 New Horizon Report back in February.  You can find a copy on the NMC Wiki.  The report discusses gesture-based technology (like pinching a screen) and how it's enabling students to learn by doing.  What a great concept!  One of the cool technologies talked about in the report:

Zero Touch
go.nmc.org/xpsge
Researchers at Texas A&M University have developed a multi-touch system from infrared sensors that allows precision free-air interaction. Users reach into a frame lined with sensors, and can use their hands, elbows, arms, head, or any object, such as a pen, to create compositions on their computer screens. 

Here's a picture of a young girl using the Zero Touch (from the Interface Ecology Facebook page).




I think gesture-based technology has already changed the way we interact with computers and the days of mice and keyboards may be numbered!

Forces:
Technological - advances in touch screen technology are changing the way we interact with computers.  The iPad and iPhone in particular have made swiping and pinching of screens a common practice.

Global - smart phones, tablets and other devices that use touch screens are used across the globe.  The days of localized keyboards may be numbered.

1 comment:

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