Bill Thoen wrote:
Yes, they've reinvented the mouse, and the monitor is finally big enough
and fast enough to work in a map-sized environment.
On a "future of computing" scale, I think innovations like the laptop,
tablets, and PDAs will weigh far heavier than the big table 'o computer.
Yes, some mapping offices will probably get some leverage out of this,
and it will be wider spread than just the DoD.
I think the "multi-touch" metaphor is more of a "future of computing"
thing than the big 'old table. From iPhone, to table, to every form
factor in-between, not having to use physical buttons frees up a great
deal of freedom for interesting interaction design (some of which MS is
showing in their "magic phone" demo portion). It could be a real
user-interaction catastrophe, as a million new interface metaphors are
invented.
By focusing on the negative, I think you're missing the point. By that
logic, one might even question the value of using an expensive PC for
mapmaking when pen and ink is so much more flexible and on paper your
workspace can be several feet wide. Who'd want to make maps staring into
a tiny little 20" screen? (Then again, I'm also happy using vi on a
monochrome monitor, so it's not that I don't appreciate the old ways. I
see untapped possibilities at both ends of the spectrum.)
Perhaps I am myopic, but I doubt it. I did not seem them doing anything
new with their data. Yes, the demo was very hind-brain, but all of what
they were doing could be done with a mouse -- it was INCREMENTAL
improvement, not TRANSFORMATIVE. You can't run a live image processing
lense over a paper map, but you can do it on a digital map... with mouse
or with big-ass table.
As an aside... does your gut reaction have anything to do with it being
associated with the 800-lb gorilla of computing?
Nope, I think the idea is just as good a demo and marginal a
wide-utility concept coming from this small company, whose demo really
captures the "it's just like a mouse, only fingers" ethic.
http://www.perceptivepixel.com/
(This bothers me,
because I think it's such a great idea I shudder to think how Microsoft
will license it into uselessness. I believe they will stop at nothing to
keep Linux out of their hair.)
What's weird is that they won't let ANYONE do development with it right
now. They are only selling direct to end users (hotels and casinos being
their apparent target market). So if you want to bring it into the
county assessors office and trick it out with ArcGIS, too bad, not for
love or money.
As to it being a niche market, do you mean like HDTV was?
I guess I don't consider a technology real until I buy it myself :)
Still no HDTV... perhaps when they stop making ordinary ones. Watch out
when I get my iPhone, though, you won't be able to shut me up.
P
--
Paul Ramsey
Refractions Research
http://www.refractions.net
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Phone: 250-383-3022
Cell: 250-885-0632
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