If Apple’s Working on a Tablet PC, Here’s Video of What the Interface Should Look Like
10:13 am, February 9th, 2006, lkahney
There’s talk over at ThinkSecret that the next video iPod may feature a big screen covering the entire front of the device. The screen will be touch-sensitive, allowing the iPod to be controlled by a virtual click wheel that will appear when a finger brushes the screen.
Apple was recently granted several touch-screen patents. The filings (here, here and here) include illustrations of a hand making circular motions as if it were using an iPod clickwheel.
But the patents may also refer to a tablet PC. They mention rotating and centering pages, zooming in and out of documents — and recognizing complex gestures from multiple touch points on the screen — all of which sounds like a multipoint gesture interface developed at NYU.
In New York, researchers have created a working prototype of an amazing touch-screen interface for a computer that, unlike most touch screens, supports multiple touch points — or multiple people.
Running on OS X, the interface is reminiscent of Steven Spielberg’s fictional, gesture-based UI in Minority Report — but much cooler.
In a demonstration video (You Tube link), a user can be seen rearranging digital pictures scattered across a virtual desktop, and resizing them by squeezing their fingers together or splaying them apart. The user also creates some digital art, zooms in on a map and scoots around, and types rapidly on a virtual keyboard.
I’m not a tablet expert, but all the tablet PCs I’ve seen present a standard UI with some gesture controls, substituting the mouse cursor for a greasy finger.
The NYU research seems like a radical rethink — a real haptic interface, appropriate to hand control.
There’s been lots of rumors of an Apple tablet lately. If it has this kind of interface — it’d be a killer.
(Via Robot Wisdom)
Posted by lkahney in Apple, Hardware | Comment on this article
wow, if this is what apple’s eyeballing, then i can totally see why. it’s intuitive and drop-jaw awesome. i think i can see the death of the mouse from here — although i’m not sure i can envision exactly how, say, all the current software i tend to use as a graphic designer would translate over to such an interface. but i’m sure there must be a way.
Franko, on February 10th, 2006 at 10:56 am
Wow also! Despite the obvious differences, reminds me of the computer screens used in Minority Report. Looks Killer. Heck, why stop with an ipod or tablet, integrate this tech into desktop machines for crazy new monitors. I’d buy!
Joshie, on February 14th, 2006 at 6:05 pm