OpenRoad + Mod7
Two pioneering organizations, together at last.
OpenRoad is pleased to announce the acquisition of creative agency Mod7.
Read the letter from our PrincipalRad Touch Screen Research Out of NYU
Posted on October 03, 2006 in Media Culture by Mod7
Touch screens are kinda cool, but you've probably never thought about one drawback most of them share: the "mouse" mentality. Most of those devices are just glorified mouse pointers. That means you can only "click" or "hover" on one tiny part of the screen at anytime.
That all changes when you go all multi-touch interaction like these dudes (and dudettes?) from NYU.
Check out that video demo--that's pretty rad touchscreen action, yo. We're talking Minority Report futurism, man. Think using both hands on the screen at the same time. Think sharing the screen with many other participants. And this isn't about using this for some dumb museum kiosk. This comes all so closer to removing the whole monitor/keyboard/mouse paradigm from everyday computer interaction.
http://mrl.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch/
Sure, it's probably really slow in practice, and the potential applications just barely scratch the surface. Now, the BIG question is: HOW DO I GET ONE??!!
As I said, the idea of touch screens are kinda cool, but the execution of their lame uses usually sucks these days. Like those smudgy, cludgy screens you see at real estate sales centers, or next to exhibits in museums... museums that are trying to get hip with the multim3dia kidz by spending $100k developing a kiosk that wastes your time by making you wade through 5 minutes of tacky "interactive" PowerPoint-like presentations, when the same amount of learning and information could have been gained just by reading the stupid exhibit description or talking to the janitor. Never mind the scores of kids crowding the thing successfully hacking into the badly-hidden Window 98 / Internet Explorer combo that powers the "experience". Man, have we fallen for the kiosk-developer's pitch or what?
So when you think touch screens, I hope you think bigger than what we're used to... I want to live in a touch screen box, baby.