MESSAGE
| DATE | 2010-06-07 |
| FROM | Ron Guerin
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Multi-Touch HP 5102
|
swd wrote:
> "Multi-touch"? As in pushing three buttons at once, say? Then two different
> ones? Like those door locks you see on offices and other buildings?
> Why would this be the way things are going with software?
> Please tell me more. Or where I can get more information about this.
[Conventional] Touch screens have been around for decades. They never
caught on because they were little more than expensive replacements for
a mouse, and to a certain extent, being able to touch the CRT of a
desktop computer wasn't really all that useful. They're only designed
to be touched in one single spot at a time.
Multi-touch is a relatively recent thing. Most people first saw it in a
movie (Minority Report?) that came out a few years before the iPhone.
If you haven't seen the movie you're likely to think Apple invented
multi-touch, but that's hardly the case, they're just the first ones to
get it in a successful commercial product. Multi-touch screens are
capable of recognizing being touched in more than one spot at a time,
ie: with two fingers. All that two-fingered pinching and squeezing you
see in iPhone and iPad commercials is brought to you by
patent-encumbered technology. Apple, you may have heard, is suing
Android phone maker HTC over Apple's multi-touch patents. Apple's
patents probably aren't available for licensing at any price.
- Ron
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