[IxDA Discuss] "Interface-Free" Interface

[Michael Micheletti]

In the public safety, defense, and intel services domain, there is
considerable use of touch-screen technology for sophisticated applications.
These are apps where seconds matter and operators are highly capable. The
touch screens are typically augmented by keyboards and mice. This lets
someone like a public safety dispatcher manipulate the touch screens to
quickly press a talk button or drag a channel into a patch or something like
that, and then use the keyboard to enter data into a log book or a CAD
system. A mouse would be used for non-touchscreen apps running on the
computer. Sometimes secondary workstations with keyboards and mice are used
to avoid having something touchy like Outlook clobber a windows session
where a critical application is running.

Coolest touch screen I've seen yet is this table from Northrop Grumman. They
were demoing it at the APCO (Public Safety) conference a year ago (they
didn't let me play with it though). I kept imagining it for multi-player
games. It carried a jaw-drop price.

Link to PDF flyer: www.esri.com/library/fliers/pdfs/cs-*northrop*-
grumman.pdf

Michael Micheletti

On 10/29/06, Dan Saffer <dan at odannyboy.com> wrote:
>
> [Please voluntarily trim replies to include only relevant quoted
> material.]
>
> Just because an interface is [arguably] easy to use, doesn't mean
> it's interface free. While I think this is a really need use of the Z-
> axis and a gestural interface, I'm wondering about its limitations
> for daily use. Could I type on a touch-screen keypad all day, for
> instance? How would MS Office for instance (not to mention Adobe
> products) get translated into this mouse-less OS?
>
> Dan
>
>