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Apple Depicts Advanced Multitouch Gesturing Control Panel in Mac OS X

Apple isn't re-inventing anything here, guys. This is exactly how Fingerworks keyboards worked before Apple bought them. But I'm also excited that Apple might be bringing this to the mainstream...

Incidently, with Fingerworks these gestures weren't done on a dedicated trackpad. The entire keyboard was one flat surface without buttons like the iPhone keyboard. I wonder if/when Apple will Apple will offer us something like that...
 
Cloudsurfer said:
That looks pretty complicated. Can't we just stick to mice?
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Did you know it took 20 odd years to get mice pushed through to thte general user? Robert Scoble does a good video with Engelbart, one of the founders of pushing forward the tech so people used mice. Moore got his law after seeing a presentation by Engelbart, so he should be kept in decent esteem.
If you look at one of his more famous presentations, he had a mouse and a Chord system - he was basically using a chord version of a multibutton mouse (>6 buttons, but the chord system did chords, so it had greater options).

In the Scoble video, he showed how you could type the entire alphabet with it, as a quasi shorthand system, and that you could lose the chord box, and do it via a glove, to be able to type without looking, silently, whilst standing or interact with a heads up display.

For me the multitouch is the beginning, before we get the proper IR lighted webcams, which can track hands, finger movements, and calculate real time body positioning (and havean idea of skeletal structure to help out, which some don't have yet). The protoypes for Minority Report are already out there. But we'll take advanced multitouch till then :D
 
t0mat0 said:
For me the multitouch is the beginning, before we get the proper IR lighted webcams, which can track hands, finger movements, and calculate real time body positioning (and havean idea of skeletal structure to help out, which some don't have yet). The protoypes for Minority Report are already out there. But we'll take advanced multitouch till then :D
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Clearly you haven't seen what Johnny Lee can do with his Wii yet ;)

All this optional multi-touch functionality looks really cool. The question is- is the multi-touch chip in the MBA capable of these new 'advanced' (four finger etc.) inputs, or is it just the basic?
 
Much Ado said:
Clearly you haven't seen what Johnny Lee can do with his Wii yet ;)
All this optional multi-touch functionality looks really cool. The question is- is the multi-touch chip in the MBA capable of these new 'advanced' (four finger etc.) inputs, or is it just the basic?
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Not quite :p There was a decent thread about this around CES when one of the start ups was demoing some depth perception software and hardware. E.g. 3Dv

Personally I like his http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw
Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the WiiRemote better - pseudo 3D on a HDTV? It would be one hell of a cool add on for the Wii.

The thing about your Jonny Lee link is that it can't tell which finger is being pointed. The depth perception can get your body frame, hand position - it has a lot more information from it. Whilst it's resolution isn't amazing yet, it's got a lot going for it (the DoD already have this being worked on as one of the guys involved did some R&D/talking with them to set this up for them).

I'd imagine only the MBP will have it in all probability - there has to be differentiators between the MB, MA and the MBP. Going against that, the Air does already have the nondrive lightweight low speed difference to the MBP.
 
This is all great. I can't even use a track pad that doesn't allow two finger scrolling and tapping anymore. I am sure we will rapidly learn and accept these new gestures and wonder how we lived without them. Like others have said, I work all day on a Mac and my arm, wrist and shoulder would love to be freed from a mouse for a least some of the time.

I wonder if Apple are already developing three dimensional gesture input devices? Allowing the hand to be gesturing in mid air seems to be the next logical step. I wouldn't mind wearing a special glove if necessary but something that could read the hands gestures without a glove would be cool.
 
I guess a pinky finger is the little finger?

Mine's the same colour as my other fingers. Although my ring finger is not ring-shaped...

I still think people want copy and paste on the iPhone :)
 
apple store...

Hey guys, apple store is down and nobody says anything?
:eek:
or maybe I'm posting on the wrong thread...

(by the way this multitouch would be greeeat on the new MBP and today is tuesday! ;))
 
This sounds to be like a feature that'll be incorporated in 10.6 because its a major feature. It would also explain the panels for both Basic and Advanced Multitouch since undoubtedly 10.6 will be installed on machines with both. Apple will go ahead and add the improved multitouch trackpads to its notebook lines as new revisions are pushed, and then the real usefulness behind them will be added in 10.6.
 
asrmatt said:
Hey guys, apple store is down and nobody says anything?
:eek:
or maybe I'm posting on the wrong thread...

(by the way this multitouch would be greeeat on the new MBP and today is tuesday! ;))
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You're not going crazy, the store really IS down. Just checked the store and I'm greeted with a big yellow sticky. If a new MBP comes out today, it will seriously make me reconsider the MBA.
 
dsl4c said:
MacFly123 said:
Lol, I just barely made this then I looked at the home page and saw this article :)
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eww.. that macbook pro is ugly..
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I kinda like it myself. I'm sure it won't end up having the black border around the screen, but I have no problem with it.
It's too easy to jump all over people who make mock-ups, just because their vision is different than ours; but bear in mind that 1. Our own vision isn't necessarily better or worse, just different and 2. The person who made the mock-up may or may not have any training in industrial design and is just expressing what they'd like to see with the skills they have. Though I think this one is well done as a mockup whether you like the concept or not.

Cleve said:
Putting the Mac to sleep by applying the bottom of your fist? It is so natural!
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Big deal, my old PentiumII, (barely) running Windows 98 had a similar feature; wake it up from a frozen state by applying the bottom of the fist to the side of the tower. It didn't always work so well. Also, if you wanted to tell the OS to go F**k itself, you could bang the mouse on the desk.

And here's another example of existing multitouch that's been around for ages: everybody knows that pressing a button multiple times in rapid succession makes elevators go faster and walk signals change sooner.:)
 
May be this is why C&P is still not on iPhone

This might explain why the iPhone still doesn't have cut and paste. May be Apple knows how it wants to implement cut and paste and want to be consistent across platforms.
 
This is the most exciting thing I've heard about regarding Macs for a long time. I love the limited multi-touch functions on my Macbook. Extending their use can only be a good thing.

Stuff boring old 'faster specs'. This is the sort of stuff that really makes me want to upgrade.
 
first thing that came to mind: what if you don't have 5 fingers? then u'd be :mad:

is apple opening themselves up to a slew of disability lawsuits?

it's a cool technology, just playing devil's advocate.
 
lexlix said:
first thing that came to mind: what if you don't have 5 fingers? then u'd be :mad:

is apple opening themselves up to a slew of disability lawsuits?

it's a cool technology, just playing devil's advocate.
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No. Much like Apple doesn't get sued by blind people for making displays.

I'm sure mice will always be an option. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Apple pioneer voice-recognition and audio-computing for the blind? I hardly think they're likely to leave anyone out in the cold.
 
He he. Sorry, but I actually find this whole idea humorous. Am I the only one that thinks this "Multi Touch" system is ridiculous? Look closely at the first post for 30 seconds. Now look away and tell me the system "gestures". :eek:
Good grief. Couldn't they have made this more complicated somehow :p ? I feel sorry for anyone with Arthritis if they had to use this system. I get a picture in my mind of two hands looking like a ball of string that can't be unwound :eek: .

Sorry, but I think this is heading in exactly the wrong direction in my opinion, and smacks of "Mavis Beacons Touch Gesturing 101". Touch screens should allow you to use 1 finger - or thumb, or pinkie to select from a series of ever decreasing menus. They should be SIMPLE, not more complicated. Just my opinion I guess.

Rich
 
As someone else has mentioned this is just the FingerWorks technology being applied to Mac OS X specific features. I had one of the FingerWorks keyboards and it worked very well for gesturing (the entire keyboard was basically a trackpad). The problem with it was that it was used as a keyboard as well. Because it was a trackpad this provided no tactile feedback while typing which was its downfall.
 
RichardI said:
Look closely at the first post for 30 seconds. Now look away and tell me the system "gestures". Couldn't they have made this more complicated somehow :p ?
Rich
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You're right in that at first glance the gestures appear complicated. But the truth is, they are surprisingly easy to remember. I have one of the Touchstream keyboards from Fingerworks, and the gesture system was an amazing thing to use. It just, unfortunately, sucked as a keyboard. If you think about it, a standard keyboard, that someone learns to touch-type on, is a ten finger gestural interface, with a separate gesture for every letter of the alphabet. Yet people somehow manage. I'd argue that the Fingerworks based gesture system is a far cry easier to learn than learning to touch-type. I'd even argue that it is an easier system to learn than having to remember different hot-keys for all of the actions that the gestures represent.
 
Did anyone notice the Cut and Paste gestures?

Is it possible that this might sneak its way into the iPhone?

Three fingers pinching or pushing...that might work. :D
 
RichardI said:
He he. Sorry, but I actually find this whole idea humorous. Am I the only one that thinks this "Multi Touch" system is ridiculous? Look closely at the first post for 30 seconds
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How intuitive is Command-W to close a window? Or Command-V to paste? These gestures aren't necessarily brand new functionality, but advanced shortcuts for people to work (potentially) more efficiently. Similarly, all keyboard shortcuts aren't necessary, and there are people who don't use them at all. But for the people who do remember them, they save a lot of time.

arn
 
That thumb and 2 finger set of gestures are ackward. I hope they let you reassign new gestures.

People like to customize.
 
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