Mice will dead in 3 to 5.

[stevie lee]

following Health and safety guidelines, wouldn't large 17inch+ screens be banned? due to the recommended safe viewing distance.. unless you have really long arms, or a long pointy stick with a rubber finger on it..

and what about people who cant hold their arms out straight due to having 1 to many car crash accidents? how would it work for them?


and as for the facial gesture emotive stuff.. unless your a zhen taoist buddhist monk or 'dead on the inside', how would you be able to control what happens in your thoughts? one quick smirk when reading "well dodgy joke thread" could plunge the world into nuclear annihilation if your name is George W Bush and you have a big red button wired up to your PC.. and what if you are reading your e-mails when on the toilet? the smirk of relief after dumping a brick, could also have unforeseen consequences..

[SiM]

Totally disagree. The use is very specific, but for lecture notes its brilliant. I've had two tablet PCs, and found them to be a brilliant device throughout uni.

That said, your arm is not transparent, even if you are a protien dodging veggie, and as such most anoying compared to a mouse.

I took it to my lectures too... once... after that I realised it was easier and quicker to write on paper... Its not like I had a cheap one too... Asus R1F cost me a bit over £1200 (got it on day of release!)

The only good use I found for it was drawing stuff - but paper would have done a good job at that too...

I use it as a standard laptop for 98% of the time...

I suppose the geek embarassment factor of bringing a laptop/tablet pc to lectures (I didn't do CS so I would have been the only one with one) outweighed the convienence of having all my notes stored in one device... I prefer not reading notes of screen too, because I get easily distracted...

[TheAnimus]

ah you see i can touch type waaaaaaaaaaay faster than i can ever write.

So for my engineering stuff it was great, all the speed of drawing/writing equations that you get with paper, with the touch typing, and ease of electronic filing.

[Mike Fishcake]

Neeeeeeeeeeeeeever gonna happen. They have far, far too many uses. You're not going to get that sort of precision from pointing wildy at a screen. There's no method in development that's got the flexibility and accessibility of the mouse. Styluses and touchscreens get in the way, voice control doesn't seem to have progressed in the last 10 years, eye control has far too much likelihood of being unwieldy.

edit: plus the guy uses the word "paradigm" so he deserves a slap on the back of the head.

[SiM]

ah you see i can touch type waaaaaaaaaaay faster than i can ever write.

So for my engineering stuff it was great, all the speed of drawing/writing equations that you get with paper, with the touch typing, and ease of electronic filing.

You used to type? Its hard typing maths

When I tried it, I just wrote all my notes using the stylus... Stylus is not as good as pen for writing

[Saracen]

...

That's really not the generation of products that is being talked about here though. This is probably an evolution of the sensor bar arrangement, rather than any conductivity changes - it's already cheaper, more sensitive and able to take multiple continuous inputs. In 5 years time it'll probably add no more to the cost of a monitor than built-in speakers do today.

Well, how good (and reliable) such technology proves to be remains to be seen. But we still have the situation where problems with a touch screen will likely imply the cost of replacing the screen. Problems with a mouse imply the cost of replacing a mouse.

But even if that's solved (and I don't see it, not in the time frame Gartner were talking about), you still have the ergonomics of the situation.

Time will tell, but it'll have to be a LOT better, and very different in use, and way cheaper, before I'd even contemplate it.

[kalniel]

Well, how good (and reliable) such technology proves to be remains to be seen. But we still have the situation where problems with a touch screen will likely imply the cost of replacing the screen. Problems with a mouse imply the cost of replacing a mouse.

We're already in the times of replacing whole computers for the failure of one part. The majority of computers sold are laptops - break the dvd player and people end up getting whole new computers even if they could get it serviced.

But even if that's solved (and I don't see it, not in the time frame Gartner were talking about), you still have the ergonomics of the situation.

Less of a problem with laptops, but of course. No-one has tried to describe how such a device will look in the future - MS were keen on their coffee table thing for casual computer usage/HTPC control before.

I think the main thing is the timescale - I can see mice being uncommon for HTPCs and laptops quite easily, but not for old fashioned (and minority) desktop computer use.

[Funkstar]

I got a tablet pc... summary in one word - useless (for most people)

Which is a total shame, because i really really like the concept.

Perhaps if my Asus could be used with a finder as well as the stylus I would use the tablet functions more often.

[IBM]

I thought this thread was about something different

[Stewart]

Meece wont die out util we can control the cursor on the screen with our mind.

And that wont be until at least the next revision of the iPhone comes out.

[Stringent]

Minority Report Type screens?

[Funkstar]

For computer mice to die out, interface design will need to change radically.

Not something that is going to happen across the board in 3 to 5 years. Decades perhaps.

[Mossy]

would make things easy, for the 5 minutes the screen lasts. Can you imagine German Psycho kid?

Yeah

i chucked my mouse in the past through frustration, could imagine picking my screen and chucking that more damge to the wall lol

[Saracen]

We're already in the times of replacing whole computers for the failure of one part. The majority of computers sold are laptops - break the dvd player and people end up getting whole new computers even if they could get it serviced.

Some people might - often those that are either lazy, don't know any better or have more money than sense. Replacing a DVD drive is, usually, trivial. The screen .... well, that's different, cost-wise.

Laptops might be gaining in some markets, but they're making no dent at all in others, such as mainstream business machines. They're still to expensive in comparison, and too compromised in many ways too, so tend to be used only when there's a need for a laptop.

Personally, I use a laptop when travelling or away and only when travelling or away. Otherwise, it sits here and doesn't get powered up for weeks on end. And, while I can't and won't extrapolate it to a wider market, I use my laptop more than almost any of my friends of family, many of whom don't have one because they don't need it away from home.

.... I think the main thing is the timescale - I can see mice being uncommon for HTPCs and laptops quite easily, but not for old fashioned (and minority) desktop computer use.

That may well be true, but HTPCs are certainly niche products, though it's becoming a very much more popular niche. And, given the usage, some other form of control and/or interface might well make sense. But for the mainstream ..... I still don't see it, until or unless something very much better comes along at a price point that make it practical.

Time may prove me wrong, but I don't think touch screens (as Gartner said) stand a hope in hell of doing that in the mainstream in anything like the time frame they predict. Much longer timrframe, maybe. Meantime, as I said, I think they can dream on.

[Funkstar]

Two interesting recent developments I've just remembered about however are:

V12 Designs' dual-screen laptop coming in two years?
http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/10/v...-in-two-years/

combined with:

New Nokia patent application gives insight in to haptic feedback technology - More details on Haptikos
http://www.intomobile.com/2008/07/09...-haptikos.html

Could be interesting.

[Dirk]

Just think of all the greasy finger marks you would get on you monitor if you used it all the time as a touch screen. You would be forver having to clean the thing.