I'm becoming more and more intrigued by the latest offering of inexpensive touch screen PCs like the MSI Wind Top that have been released recently, as well as the rumored Apple Tablet. I'm excited for the penetration of touch interfaces on higher resolution desktop applications, which will start to spread at a much greater rate to a wider audience when we see low cost devices like tablets and touch screen desktops at netbook prices.
The researchers behind BumpTop released a new commercial version of their desktop interface software that shows how Windows users might begin to use their touch screen PCs before Microsoft releases its own touch interface. You may recall the demo of BumpTop for Windows tablets that was initially demonstrated in 2006 and published in Proceedings of CHI 2006. The recently released $29 product for Windows 7 is a desktop overlay that allows users to access, manipulate and filter objects on their desktop using a piles metaphor.
If Apple comes out with a tablet, I'm sure will see a lot of similar interfaces using their dock piles. Watch the video above to see how the app transforms the Windows desktop, or check out the BumpTop page for more info.
Unfortunately users are used to the pastern desktop and very few embrace change in this field.
A couple of years ago I was amazed with the possibility of multiple desktops, quickly I discovered that Linux had better desktop interaction than Windows or Mac.
I've also tried project Looking Glass. It's an interesting project. I wanted to post a link but youtube seems to be down for maintenance.
Mac users were introduced to information piles in OS X's dock, so that metaphor should be familiar to many by now. I think it will make even more sense in a touch screen interface to the desktop. What is least familiar is the 3D rendering of the desktop. I'm hoping that there's an option to flatten the space.
I saw Anand Agarawala present BumpTop at TED, this was originally his thesis I think which he then made a product? Great stuff!
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