Touch Computing Hits Its Stride

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A confluence of greater processing power, the spread of supersized displays, and the success of the iPhone at raising users' awareness of the power of touch computing has sparked interest in the field. Microsoft's Surface efforts survived in no small part because of advocacy from Chairman Bill Gates, long a champion of "natural" methods of interacting with a computer, including touch and speech. In fact, tactile computing is one of just a handful of areas (BusinessWeek, 6/26/08) that Gates will continue to help navigate after his retirement from full-time work at the company. "Bill's a half-step ahead of us, and two steps ahead of the market in his thinking," Bach said.

Industry Implications

As forward-thinking as they may be, Gates and other surface-computing proponents need to ensure the technology doesn't leave the rest of the industry behind. The systems are expensive, the vast majority of software doesn't work this way, and there's little agreement over the best way for users to interact with tactile computers.

There's also a nagging question over how useful surface computing can be in a work setting, since applications remain somewhat limited. Today, the systems handle such tasks as helping salespeople explain the features of cell phones in AT&T Wireless (T) stores; assisting patrons at a Harrah's Entertainment casino in ordering drinks; or letting users download photos from a wireless-equipped digital camera placed on top of Surface.

Bruce Tognazzini, a principal at usability consultant Nielsen Norman Group, who's also worked at Apple and Sun Microsystems (JAVA), says the technology has big implications for the design industry, for starters. Tognazzini, who worked for Apple from 1978 to 1992, says it's "very realistic" for Apple to design a multitouch Mac for graphics designers with a horizontal screen. "The payoff is going to be high enough that people are going to go for it," he says. Apple spokesman Steve Dowling declined to comment on what he called speculation about future products. Yet Apple is already broadening its use of touch computing. In addition to the iPhone and iPod Touch, Apple's MacBook Air laptop features a large track pad that lets users make pinching, swiping, or rotating gestures on it to manipulate text or images.

Will Consumers at Large Adapt?

Microsoft is looking into business uses of Surface, such as manipulating photos for a magazine layout, or letting two people compose a PowerPoint slide show together, says August de los Reyes, a user experience architect at the company. Gates showed a group of CEOs in Redmond (Wash.) a prototype system called TouchWall that lets users stand in front of a giant vertical screen and use finger flicks to flip through document pages or slide decks. And Microsoft recently demonstrated Windows 7, due in 2010 or so, running on a touchscreen laptop and responding to gesture commands.

Andy Wilson, the researcher at Microsoft whose work led to Surface, says Windows 7 could simplify what today are complicated interactions, like the multistep process of clicking, grabbing, and rotating an object in a drawing program by using a mouse. "If you're going to have these kinds of complicated conventions, sometimes it might be easier to put your hand on the thing and do what you want," he says.

As with every new technology though, the success of tactile computing may depend in large part on users' willingness to adapt. "People still have a resistance to changing their work style," says MIT professor Ishii. In design shops and other creative milieus, people draw on whiteboards, talk about ideas, and point to things—interactions that tactile systems can mirror. "That's an exception," he adds. "Most meetings are one guy talking, and many people listening."

See BusinessWeek.com's slide show for more on surface computing.

Ricadela is a writer for BusinessWeek.com in Silicon Valley.