I quite like the touch screen on my phone. No moving parts, compact, reliable. Scrolling and zooming web pages works great. Not so good for actually typing posts to the forum and such but I don't have the urge to do that from my phone much. All that slimy gunk that accumulates on on the screen is mine. No one else uses my phone so that's OK.
By the time we get up to the size of a 10 inch tablet those little finger and thumb motions have scaled up to full wrist and arm movements. It already starts to get annoying. Still an acceptable solution for input to a portable device used for surfing and email etc.
By the time we get up to my work station screens forget it. All that arm waving would be ludicrous. And I don't want all that slimy gunk on my screen. It's a pain to clean it and often others are looking at my screens. Eeew.
But what about all those millions of public terminals? Like the check-in machines at airports, ticket machines at railway stations etc. They are quite big. They are generally at a low height so you don't have to lift your arms in a crazy way. Poking at those on screen buttons is just a natural.
Presumably a modern OS should be ready for use in such applications. I'm sure MS would not want to miss out on such a market.
One of my monitors is a TV. It's about 6 feet away, so I'd have to get out of my nice, comfy chair and walk just to touch it. I can almost see how the large tile interface might actually work well on a TV visually, but I really dislike the overall scheme - reminds me of a Fisher-Price kids toy for some reason.
I'm kinda old-fashioned, well old anyhow. Seems rather odd to reach over your keyboard to do something on your computer. <shrug>
Seems rather odd to reach over your keyboard to do something on your computer.
You have to consider that you have twenty first century software that you are expected to use with twentieth century hardware technology. What do I mean by this, what if your 24" monitor was as thin as what you see on a laptop, and what if you were able to maneuver the monitor with ease to a horizontal position or a position that would be suited for what you will be doing, and what if you had a stylus/draw pen that you would use to actually move things around or do things on the screen.
So what could you do, how about personalizing an email with your own handwritten note done on the screen with a real signature. How about, on this forum, in your thread, somebody asks you to maybe provide a picture or a drawing of your idea. You would pull down your monitor, fire up the draw program in your spilt screen and with your draw pen you would make an actual drawing on the screen of what your idea is, save it, do a type of cut and paste where you would copy the drawing into the other window that is online with your open post. That is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what you could really be doing.
I guess some people might consider Windows 10 to be Smile, because they really do not have the correct hardware to really use the software correctly? Yes, it should be used with modern day monitor setups, if they were only available right now.
I do agree that there is a lot of scope for computer interaction apart from a monitor, keyboard and mouse.
However:
...what if you were able to maneuver the monitor with ease to a horizontal position or a position that would be suited for what you will be doing, and what if you had a stylus/draw pen that you would use to actually move things around or do things on the screen.
This is a good idea. Let's just have my entire table top as a screen instead of just a useless lump of wood.
It's going to have to be rugged though. It's going to have to handle having whatever project I'm working on sitting on it. And all the cutters, pliers, screwdrivers I have in use. It should be handle to handle solder splashes or even the heat from my soldering iron. Not to mention all the plates of food, coffee cups and beer cans. It should tolerate slips from the Dremel or other such tools.
Meanwhile the software will have to be smart enough to realize that when I do clear a little space on the table/screen to interact with then that is where I am and that is where the output should be and input accepted.
That 21st century display/input technology is not quite up to this yet. Neither can the 21st century software handle the situation I describe. So I keep my big monitor, which is pretty thin, at the back of the bench out of harms way but where I can see it. The keyboard sits on a slide out shelf under the front of the bench. The mouse generally scurries around wherever.
Let's just have my entire table top as a screen instead of just a useless lump of wood.
Well I would not go that far, but if the screen was as big as drafting board... In my youth, many years ago, I was a draftsman, some of the younger people probably do not know what the heck I am talking about. With a screen as big as a common drafting board, and the drawing software that could be available, and I am not talking about CAD stuff, I could see myself digging out some triangles, a scale, and using them, with my hands to, draw either mechanical parts or if I got a notion to draw up some curved surface parts, like maybe a bumper piece for a robot. That way I would have a lot of the modern day tech like having your hand drawn drawings instantly digitized, maybe have an automated detailing feature, and maybe you could have a 3D printer attached where you could have the actual structure that you just made a drawing of made real. Plus you would have the convenience of having an OS to do whatever else that would come to mind. Now with that being maneuverable, I could move it into an upright position, open up a new window and watch a movie as a break.
I know Heater does not want hear this, but the Surface Pro 3 is kind of is there in a small way, meaning I would be restricted to an 8.5x11 surface space to do the drawings. Plus I would have to dig out my miniature triangle set, and it would start to feel very cramped very quickly.
I think today we are missing the capability of really interacting with the computer to do hands on things. Yes, the programmers can still have upright monitor with there favorite keyboard and mouse working away with there favorite IDE to program with there favorite programming language, after all somebody has to create that futuristic software.
Yeah, what about that? They went from 3.1 to 95 in one swoop. Then from 98 (where did 97 go?), all the way up to 2000. These guys don't know how to count!
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The drafting board. Oh yes. All the first circuits I built professionally were drawn up on a drafting board. Wonderful things.
Now a days my coworkers and I spend a lot of time in front of white boards explaining and hacking on ideas, designs and plans. Having a way to snapshot, digitise and make use of all that information as neat diagrams, documents and design files would be great. I believe there are such white boards with computer interface although I have yet to see one.
So yep. I'm all for. Let's turn every available surface, and the intervening 3D spaces, into a unified human interface device.
The Surface Pro may well be a small step in that direction.
So, what about connecting a pointing device which you could operate from your chair.. you could move it around on a surface and that would control where it was pointing on the screen.. .
Sir, are you suggesting a "butt mouse"? As a method of controling the cursor AND getting a modicum of exercise while operating the computer? Intriguing...
So, what about connecting a pointing device which you could operate from your chair.. you could move it around on a surface and that would control where it was pointing on the screen. Add a couple of buttons to select items you're pointing at. Yes, that would be convenient.. if somebody had invented that I'm sure it would let MS ditch the need to have to touch (maybe even walking over to) the computer screen all the time..
My sarcasm sense tingled a bit when I read that, because, well, it sounds a whole lot like a standard computer mouse.
The drafting board. Oh yes. All the first circuits I built professionally were drawn up on a drafting board. Wonderful things.
Now a days my coworkers and I spend a lot of time in front of white boards explaining and hacking on ideas, designs and plans. Having a way to snapshot, digitise and make use of all that information as neat diagrams, documents and design files would be great. I believe there are such white boards with computer interface although I have yet to see one.
So yep. I'm all for. Let's turn every available surface, and the intervening 3D spaces, into a unified human interface device.
The Surface Pro may well be a small step in that direction.
The whiteboards with computer interfaces are called 'Smartboards'...
Mostly, they're an expensive gadget that some people THINK they need, but only end up using ONCE.
It's much better to use a digital camera to take snaps now and then...
Or go 'low tech' and use a 'flipchart' (also called 'Flip-over' )
It's much better to use a digital camera to take snaps now and then...
How did you guess? That is exactly what we do.
Or go 'low tech' and use a 'flipchart' (also called 'Flip-over' )
We have flipcharts as well.
The neat thing about camera snaps is that it works for whiteboards, flip charts, bits of old scrap paper, napkins etc.
But then what?
Now we have the diagrams and text and whatever in an fuzzy image file. Preserved forever. Well that is good.
But still somebody has to turn the various parts of that into a usable document, of whatever kind, from scratch. Then we are back to data entry via keyboard and mouse. With perhaps the help of a graphics tablet.
That "every surface and space is an input device" dream is still just a dream around here.
My sarcasm sense tingled a bit when I read that, because, well, it sounds a whole lot like a standard computer mouse.
Or maybe I'm wrong again.
No sarcasm from me, I don't use sarcasm on the net. It was just a tongue-in-cheek way of pointing out that leaving behind the mouse and at the same time forgetting that monitors are now getting larger than TVs used to be (and thus moving away from the user) will lead us in a circle back to the past - and there was a fix for that..
Comments
I quite like the touch screen on my phone. No moving parts, compact, reliable. Scrolling and zooming web pages works great. Not so good for actually typing posts to the forum and such but I don't have the urge to do that from my phone much. All that slimy gunk that accumulates on on the screen is mine. No one else uses my phone so that's OK.
By the time we get up to the size of a 10 inch tablet those little finger and thumb motions have scaled up to full wrist and arm movements. It already starts to get annoying. Still an acceptable solution for input to a portable device used for surfing and email etc.
By the time we get up to my work station screens forget it. All that arm waving would be ludicrous. And I don't want all that slimy gunk on my screen. It's a pain to clean it and often others are looking at my screens. Eeew.
But what about all those millions of public terminals? Like the check-in machines at airports, ticket machines at railway stations etc. They are quite big. They are generally at a low height so you don't have to lift your arms in a crazy way. Poking at those on screen buttons is just a natural.
Presumably a modern OS should be ready for use in such applications. I'm sure MS would not want to miss out on such a market.
Hence touch screen support on a desk top OS.
Sometimes when using my laptop, I stab at the screen thinking it might work as well as my tab ;-)
I'm kinda old-fashioned, well old anyhow. Seems rather odd to reach over your keyboard to do something on your computer. <shrug>
@
So what could you do, how about personalizing an email with your own handwritten note done on the screen with a real signature. How about, on this forum, in your thread, somebody asks you to maybe provide a picture or a drawing of your idea. You would pull down your monitor, fire up the draw program in your spilt screen and with your draw pen you would make an actual drawing on the screen of what your idea is, save it, do a type of cut and paste where you would copy the drawing into the other window that is online with your open post. That is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what you could really be doing.
I guess some people might consider Windows 10 to be Smile, because they really do not have the correct hardware to really use the software correctly? Yes, it should be used with modern day monitor setups, if they were only available right now.
Ray
I do agree that there is a lot of scope for computer interaction apart from a monitor, keyboard and mouse.
However: This is a good idea. Let's just have my entire table top as a screen instead of just a useless lump of wood.
It's going to have to be rugged though. It's going to have to handle having whatever project I'm working on sitting on it. And all the cutters, pliers, screwdrivers I have in use. It should be handle to handle solder splashes or even the heat from my soldering iron. Not to mention all the plates of food, coffee cups and beer cans. It should tolerate slips from the Dremel or other such tools.
Meanwhile the software will have to be smart enough to realize that when I do clear a little space on the table/screen to interact with then that is where I am and that is where the output should be and input accepted.
That 21st century display/input technology is not quite up to this yet. Neither can the 21st century software handle the situation I describe. So I keep my big monitor, which is pretty thin, at the back of the bench out of harms way but where I can see it. The keyboard sits on a slide out shelf under the front of the bench. The mouse generally scurries around wherever.
I know Heater does not want hear this, but the Surface Pro 3 is kind of is there in a small way, meaning I would be restricted to an 8.5x11 surface space to do the drawings. Plus I would have to dig out my miniature triangle set, and it would start to feel very cramped very quickly.
I think today we are missing the capability of really interacting with the computer to do hands on things. Yes, the programmers can still have upright monitor with there favorite keyboard and mouse working away with there favorite IDE to program with there favorite programming language, after all somebody has to create that futuristic software.
Ray
hmm xbox... xbox360.
The drafting board. Oh yes. All the first circuits I built professionally were drawn up on a drafting board. Wonderful things.
Now a days my coworkers and I spend a lot of time in front of white boards explaining and hacking on ideas, designs and plans. Having a way to snapshot, digitise and make use of all that information as neat diagrams, documents and design files would be great. I believe there are such white boards with computer interface although I have yet to see one.
So yep. I'm all for. Let's turn every available surface, and the intervening 3D spaces, into a unified human interface device.
The Surface Pro may well be a small step in that direction.
Sir, are you suggesting a "butt mouse"? As a method of controling the cursor AND getting a modicum of exercise while operating the computer? Intriguing...
My sarcasm sense tingled a bit when I read that, because, well, it sounds a whole lot like a standard computer mouse.
Or maybe I'm wrong again.
The whiteboards with computer interfaces are called 'Smartboards'...
Mostly, they're an expensive gadget that some people THINK they need, but only end up using ONCE.
It's much better to use a digital camera to take snaps now and then...
Or go 'low tech' and use a 'flipchart' (also called 'Flip-over' )
The neat thing about camera snaps is that it works for whiteboards, flip charts, bits of old scrap paper, napkins etc.
But then what?
Now we have the diagrams and text and whatever in an fuzzy image file. Preserved forever. Well that is good.
But still somebody has to turn the various parts of that into a usable document, of whatever kind, from scratch. Then we are back to data entry via keyboard and mouse. With perhaps the help of a graphics tablet.
That "every surface and space is an input device" dream is still just a dream around here.
Like the HP 'HD Scanner' at my office...
(I've only used it to make a 'work copy' of RC model plans... )
Data from Smartboards must also be handled 'manually', whether it's handwriting recognition SW, image processing or whatnot.
In fact, when people at my office collaborate, they usually use MS Lync.
-Tor