Future GUI: Get Ready For Multi-Touch Graphic Interaction Surfaces

If you thought documenting a “configurable” software product was challenging, take a look at what the future holds for the graphic user interface (GUI). Jefferson Han, Philip Davidson, Casey Muller, and Ilya Rosenberg have taken the desktop to new and exciting heights. In Multi-Touch Interaction Experiments the designers of future GUIs show us what’s possible today—and likely to be part of our arsenal of tools in the near future.

Their work goes far beyond the “poking actions you get with a typical touchscreen, or the gross gesturing found in video-based interactive interfaces,” they say. “It is a rich area for research, and we are extremely excited by its potential for advances in efficiency, usability, and intuitiveness...Our technique is force-sensitive, and provides unprecedented resolution and scalability, allowing us to create sophisticated multi-point widgets for applications large enough to accommodate both hands and multiple users.”