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Commenting on my post about Microsoft’s botched marketing initiative for Surface, my friend Angel checks in from Florida and directs me to this post suggesting that multi-touch will be Steve Jobs’ “one more thing” when he does the official introduction of Leopard.

The comments of that post are where the real action is… plenty of back and forth about the promise and/or folly of multi-touch as a viable day-to-day interface for working with the Macintosh. When it comes to how I work on the computer - mostly designing in Adobe Applications, I can’t imagine multi-touch having enough resolution to work well. A mouse seems way more precise when it comes to selecting control points, or even adjusting parameters in filter menus than my finger. I’m not even comfortable using a laptop’s touch pad.

Certainly there are applications where this wouldn’t be the case - specifically, the post talks about Apple’s Pro applications like Logic, and presumably Final Cut at some point. I can definitely see the advantage of working on a multi-touch interface that emulates a mixing board - but that’s pretty niche for a major announcement. It reminded me of a patent application Apple filed a while back for interfaces that combine “mechanical overlay” devices with touch screens. In the patent drawings they sketch out what looks like a mixing board with a row of sliders on top of a touch screen. The apparent advantage would be having the familiar feel of feedback that you get from analog controls like sliders and knobs. In the sketch below, #14 represents the touch screen that the mechanics would overlay. Seems very cool, but also very niche.

Mac NN did a major post on the patent back in November which is worth reading if you missed it. There are plenty more drawings that explore the possibilities of the overlay as interface.

Obviously years from now and with significant redesign at the most base level of how we interact with computers multi-touch could be amazing, but I’m more interested in now.

My friend Tunc is probably the most technology hungry Mac fanatic early adopter I know, so what do you think Tunc? Are you on board with the mutli-touch revolution or is it just a niche gimmick better left to big table tops in hotel lobbies?

Late Update: Tunc is completely on board.

So the computing division of Microsoft finally comes up with a product that has the potential to reposition the brand as a market leader instead of just the leading developer of bloatware, but the marketing department designs, approves and releases creative that resembles stock video clips for a prescription drug advertisement with copy and voice over as soulless as a stripper’s eyes. Their initial market for Surface is obviously high end hotels like the W that are very concerned with design and “hipness” and this is what they decide to go with? Really?

Likely from the same minds that decided to call the Zune file sharing feature “squirting”.
Perhaps a Google search is in order next time?

I’ll stick with Jeff Han’s preview of the multi touch interface from TED a couple of years ago.
Twice the wow with none of the cringe.

The art of folding paper into beautifully intricate shapes is intrinsically tied to Japanese culture in my mind. Hear the word origami, and immediately think of the quintessential crane - you know the one, no need to provide a picture

Richard Sweeney out of the UK is pushing and pulling paper in an entirely different direction. Admittedly, his work owes as much to structural design and architecture as it does origami (likely more), but his creations elicit a similar feeling - awe, at the elegance and seeming impossibility of the creations.

Truly amazing work…

Website, Flickr Set and full Flickr Stream.