My touchscreen addiction...

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I love NUI's! I know Steve Jobs said that it's unnatural to have a touchscreen on a laptop because of arm fatigue. To a certain degree he's correct. But you don't constantly have your arms up at the screen. You do bring your arms to a resting positon. Teachers do it everyday when using black and smart boards in todays schools. After several weeks of using my new 20 inch HP multitouch screen at work, being forced to use a trackpad or a mouse is like going back to the stone age. I find that when I'm working at home on the laptop or at somone else's computer my natural instinct now is to use my fingers to move windows, close programs, touch and hold for the right menu choices. At first it doesn't seem natural because are used to using a mouse or a trackpad. It seems almost primative to think about using your fingers. But using your fingers to move things around and to select choices are the most natural. It's what we want to do in most situations if you were to let yourself go.
Getting back to the arm fatigue subject, I would prefer to have the table be the multi-touch monitor; but have the table angled in a similiar way to an architects drawing table might be. The angle should reduce neck, arm and shoulder strain.
One final note; I want to wish my collegues in Saarbruken Germany attending the ACM International Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surface all the best. Stay warm! Wish I was there.

 

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