Does anyone think that 2012 / 2013 will be when we see touch interfaces coming to the desktop? Metro Metro Metro, as a crazy sweaty fat man recently raved?

They say that IOS is the inspiration behind OS X Mountain Lion, and that Windows 8 has it's roots in Zune.

Everyone I know that played with 8 instantly switched to a more classical view.

It's not like it hasn't be tried before. Even the BBC Micro had an optical pen interface, and the resolution of a pen is the same as a finger. I even built one myself back in 1985

Does anyone remember the name of a DOS program launcher which was based on tiles, back in the early 90s? I remember having it on several 8086 based machines to replace the usual autoexec text based startup menu. It looked like it did because the screen resolution was 640x480 at the very highest - a lot like a modern phone!

My dual 24" displays are further than arms length back on my work desk.

Likewise my laptop sits behind my Logitech keyboard, so is further than arms length away.

We will need a radical new way to use computers (I'm not talking about touch screens, I'm talking about text entry). During my working day, probably 10% of the time involves me using the mouse or touchpad, the rest of the time is spent entering text. That is slow, uncomfortable and not as easy on a touch screen - and impossible, if you are transcribing, as you have no tactile feedback, so it cannot be used for touch typing.

Then you have the problem of smearing the screen. I have enough problems with people touching my screen, pointing to things on non-touch screens and having to clean it again afterwards. Until they come up with a self cleaning display, I don't want a touchscreen. A phone can be easily rubbed on a shirt or trouser leg to get the worst smears off, but try that with a 24" or 27" display!

If you have a touch interface for a desktop machine, you have to radically rethink the hardware.

1 - If you keep your screen vertical, then your arms will get very tired. You end up with what has been termed "gorilla arm" - your arms feel very heavy and large. So the screen needs to be at a shallower angle, like a drawing board.

2 - Text input. Tried typing on an iPad? Well, I find it fine for short blocks of text, but lengthy text entry is better executed on a keyboard. Speech? Well, if you can dictate using Siri and it gets it right, then fine, but you have to learn to speak to your computer.

3 - Visual angle - see 1 - but remember that if your screen is at a shallower angle, you will get visual distortion. This is OK for casual use, but if you are doing any kind of design, you probably won't want this.

4 - Software. Everything will have to be re-written. At a basic level, there are events that just do not work on a touch interface - mouse over being the one I can think of right now. This could be a bigger transition than moving from PPC to Intel.

So I'm not expecting it right away. We may see the start in 10.9, but this is so radical that maybe Mac OS X 10.9 will be the end of the Mac desktop as we know it, and Mac OS XI will be truly touch based.

Reason 1 was the main reason given by Apple for not including a touch interface in Lion.

It just isn't practical for a desktop PC.

They also said that with the Magic Trackpad you can get your touch interface gestures and actions without the need for a touch screen and with more comfort and convenience than using a touchscreen desktop.

I don't want to touch my desktop screen. Gestures on the magic mouse are plenty enough for me.

I do expect to see keyboards that are just screens though. I expect those will be nicely gesture friendly, and apps would be able to change them depending on their needs.

Like this... http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/tactus/

Ooh, just seen this too... http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/popularis/

I don't think we'll ever touch our desktops. Computing will become far more ubiquitous, and desktops will be reserved for mundane data entry and perhaps a few obscure uses.

Like the Good Old Days:

I do believe it's heading in that direction, but I'm not sure how quickly. In the next few years?

It may be sooner than many people expect. I hate to say it, but the popularity of the iPhone and iPad (even if they aren't original ideas) at dealing with most people's computing needs, by which I mean Facebook, demonstrates that non-geeks really don’t need a computer at home. Especially in a family, it makes more sense to have individual devices which can be used under the duvet than to have one household PC with a great big screen.

Remember, anyone who thinks a PC is a better games platform than a console is also a geek. That's not how normal people think and they don't buy £300 graphics cards either

Of course, I'm an old geek and you'll have to wrench this old 5Kg IBM keyboard from my cold dead hands



I couldn't agree more. I want to make a little sign that says "THIS IS NOT A TOUCH SCREEN", but the bezel is too thin to stick it on now

You can use the arrow keys to navigate the metro interface.

I'm really looking forward to the Windows 8 Beta, having used the Developers Preview since day 1.

what about replacing the mouse with a touch screen monitor, keeping the keyboard?
yes your arms may hurt a little if your monitor is a long way away, but then again people would adapt, having their monitors closer, but probably also more tilted.
instead of clicking on a program, you just tap it.

like some of the bond/sci fi films where they just scroll stuff across screens with their fingers.

I think this is the future, but keeping keyboards as I cant see a way of replacing those, unless you could get touch screens to become responsive in a key like way.

I don't this this would work. Most people use the mouse a lot, if you made the monitor a touchscreen you'd have it tilted and closer, close enough to use it comfortably most of the time. This is mean most people would have to move the keyboard to the side as most people currently have this in that exact location. You'd be forever moving the monitor back and the keyboard infront of you then moving everything back again.

I think trackpads for desktops are a step in the right direction for touch on the desktop, then can even compliment a or replace the mouse without compromising comfort and strain.

How to sit correctly - I know many of us don't adhere to this, but how many of us here don't get back/neck/arm complaints from time to time because we sit on a stool or have to look up at the monitor, or the keyboard is 45° to the monitor. Touching the monitor is either going to do your arms in, or your neck/back in...

For occasional use, maybe, but for a day's work? After a short amount of time your arms will kill you. When Tom Cruise was filming Minority Report, he found all that physical moving for the touch screen UI very, very tiring Yes, it LOOKS wonderfully dramatic and it's a seductive idea, but if you had to use that all day every day, you would suffer greatly.

If you did want a touch screen, then really you need a rethink of the screen, it's angle on your desk and your you interact with it. The best illustration I can give you right now is the Wacom Cintiq - it's a tablet you draw on, but it's also a screen. It is angled at drawing board angles, not at screen angles.

As I said before, software would need a dramatic re-write to cope with touch interfaces. There's no mouse over - so no hovering a pointer over an icon for, say, a tool tip (unless your UI was retarded enough to get you to drag a pointer around which is not what we want or need - try using a VNC client on an iPad to see what I mean). Lots of other stuff to deal with.

What I expect from keyboards in the futures would be on-screen, scalable, and haptic. That is when you touch a screen you get some form of feedback so you can feel that you have pressed a button. This is what I find odd about using an iPad to type on.

I think that iOS, Android and Windows 8 are all experiments preceding a full desktop touch interface. Eventually one will take the plunge. From a hardware/software perspective, I think that Apple could well be there. Certainly iOS shows how it could be done, and Mac OSX is heading that way. Maybe we'll see a tilting iMac that turns into a drawing board with a touch screen.

There are already TVs and other devices that can be controlled with gestures. It may be that touching something could just be a passing fad.