Interesting Interfaces: Multi-Touch Input

"Multi-Touch Interaction Research" is described by project director Jefferson Y Han at New York University as 'bi-manual, multi-point, and multi-user interactions on a graphical interaction surface'.

The website (linked below) shows video and stills from the work of the team. Watch someone grow and shrink images by dragging the corners in appropriate directions. 'While touch sensing is commonplace for single points of contact, multi-touch sensing enables a user to interact with a system with more than one finger at a time, as in chording and bi-manual operations. Such sensing devices are inherently also able to accommodate multiple users simultaneously, which is especially useful for larger interaction scenarios such as interactive walls and tabletops,' says Han.

Since refining the FTIR (frustrated total internal reflection) sensing technique, the team of researchers have been experimenting with a wide variety of 'application scenarios and interaction modalities' that take multi-touch input information. These go far beyond the poking actions you get with a typical touchscreen, or the gross gesturing found in video-based interactive interfaces. 'It is a rich area for research, and we are extremely excited by its potential for advances in efficiency, usability, and intuitiveness. It's also just so much fun!'

Next, they'll be working with other form factors. 'Wouldn't it also be nice to identify which finger (e.g. thumb, index, etc.) is associated with each contact?'

Associated Link: Multi-Touch Interaction Research

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