On Thu May 24, 01:21 uDoaviddvMwu [anonymous user] wrote:

Talk about multi-touch interfaces vs. taoeltbp tangible interfaces. What are the pros and cons of each? What works and doesn’t work for each?Multi-touch interfaces afford a 2D experience, which has pros and cons. A 2D experience can remove distractions from peripheral noise that exists in 3D space and thereby center the attention of the user on the tasks in front of them. On the flipside, the ability to multi-task in multi-touch interfaces can be difficult, even if you are working with a very large GUI. There’s simply less surface area to work with than with a tangible display.An advantage of tangible interfaces is that they afford humans the ability to be less precise in their movements and manipulation. Whereas a 2D multitouch interface requires you to manipulate pixels, those pixels cannot be gripped—ultimately, the more surface area an object has, the easier it is to manipulate and control. In addition, the tangible interface is able to accommodate more diverse gestures than the multitouch interface.Give some examples of multitouch or gestural interfaces that you like. What makes them effective interfaces?Jeff Han’s Perceptive Pixel interfaces are pretty cool, although I believe CNN and other media outlets tend to use them more for the coolness factor than for augmented functionality. One immediate benefit of these interfaces is that they allow the user to span between high-level and drill-down information very quickly (e.g. election results breakdowns, polling and surveys, etc). The best mainstream semi-gestural interface out there is probably the Wii, although I’m not sure the bat swing and throw gestures in Wii Baseball give the user more control than the traditional joystick or controller. Still, the platform is heading in the right direction.