Next generation of pointing device: Multi-Touch

First time I heard of this technology is from the upcoming Apple iPhone, with the multi fingers multi pressure input method. And now, Microsoft recently(30 May) announced their top secret project: a software hardware combination, called Microsoft Surface.

Multi touch vs Mouse and stylus input.
As I said, Multi touch is getting more and more attention from technology world. It first appearance was 1982 at University of Toronto and Bell Labs, and it was 25 years of history(not really new as iPhone).

Multi touch allow 1 user to control the object on a surface, like rotate photo, zooming, moving object, and all functions that can be performed by old school mouse and stylus, with just fingers. In Microsoft Surface, it even allows multiple users to control the objects simultaneously.

Will there still be keyboard in the future?
I not sure, maybe Multi touch version of keyboard will appear, and may be more flexible in changing functions and locations of keys, but the traditional keyboard is still the best hardware to perform wording and shortcut input, as I can feel the shape and feeling of each keys, side by side.

Still not familiar with Multi-touch? See this.

Microsoft Surface first release will cooperate with T-Mobile and target to hospitality industries. Microsoft hope can target it to home users in 3 to 5 years in the future. Current estimate market price is USD5000 to USD10,000 per unit. Maybe 5 years later is time for me to change a new PC!

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