Computer mouse may go extinct
November 19th, 2008 By Emi EndoThe computer mouse may someday become an endangered species. Instead of rolling a mouse around to move a cursor around on the screen, more and more users will gesture with their fingers on touch screens and multi-touch trackpads, analysts say.
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I am sorry but looking through smudge marks is out of the question on my computer screen....
I love potato chips and surfing...touching the screen would cause grief...
To be practical and unsmudgeable...it will have to be a high res bright virtual screen with virtual feedback (to give surface feel)....then the mouse will be moving to the clutter box in the basement.
And Microsoft is adding more bloat to Windows 7 apparently adding touch screen software...instead of working out existing OS bugs..like in Vista which they plan to abandon in 1 year or so.
thats my .02 cents
Ultimately it will be an almost purely voice interface...with the possible execption of gaming (although Tom Clancy's Endwar has an impressive voice interface).
Touch screens require lifting your hand constantly to the screen, how dreadful, what are we cavemen?,... now eye tracking coupled with keyboard buttons replacing mouse buttons for selecting would make the mouse seem archaic.
Voice is not a new technology, so since its not widely used now, it just isn't practical.
I use an arm-rest for my mousing and some of my friends use thumb trackballs... i don't have to move my whole arm to do everything i need to do.
Touch screens are OK for grocery checkout, ATMs, or small handheld phones where the thumbs are the main moving part. Imagine writing a 100 page document and having to go from keyboard to vertical touch screen to format and edit it...
I agree. My PC/Xbox360 rig up is my entertainment center. The last thing I'm doing is smudging up my moniter because I want to swap from music to movies.
And forget useing Blender for hours with a touch screen. Sory the mouse is waaay too useful when compared to touch surfaces and track pads.
In terms of voice recognition, maybe something that sits next to your lips and can listen to your whispers to execute commands. You could probably replace 25% of your work with this. In terms of programming though, you would still need to type!
Who says the screens will be vertical?
Take Crysis MP for example. I can't even imagine trying to play it with a WiiMote - I would get crushed. The same is true for nearly all console controllers - they are very slow and imprecise. The mouse is the opposite, very fast and very precise.
Why should I change? Give me something better, I dare you.
PS: I don't want a mind interface, the next thing they will make is a thoughtlogger (like keylogger). Scary huh?
As far as voice recognition software goes, my experience with it has not been very good. Misspelled words(and some words that I never even said), and heaven forbid that you should have the TV on while you are trying to type something!
The mouse has been in use for so long for a reason: it's a simple, perfected design that works. Trackpads and other alternatives are fun (and certainly sufficient when you can't use a mouse), but otherwise they're generally difficult to use and somewhat clunky.
Touchscreens offer a nice alternative for mobile devices, but for a desktop it would just get tiring after the first ten minutes.