by jmadison » 29 Nov 2011, 17:31
"probably always only be for geeks and RSI victims"
That's the conclusion that I'm drawing. I'm both a geek and an RSI victim, and have been a TouchStream fan from the beginning. I keep watching technology and learning more about people in general and I've come to the conclusion that for most people, the cheapo keyboard and mouse that ships with their computer is good enough. I keep hoping that some of these exotic multi-touch devices will help change the status quo for traditional desktop use, but it seems that we've hit a threshold where it's good enough for the majority... so there isn't much of an impetus to improve things. Other geeks and RSI people will always be there, waiting and hoping with me, but we will probably remain a minority.
Edit:
Re-reading my post I realized that it was way too depressing. One bright spot of hope that I've noticed is that smart phones and tablets have really opened people up to try new things. I've seen non-tech-savvy people working with strange gestures and virtual keyboards, and learning to pinch, swipe, and rotate things on screen. This may be the impetus that thought was missing. Once folks start to think "this is so much easier on my iPad... the mouse is cumbersome", then we'll probably start to see a demand for better desktop input devices. So yeah, there is a bright spot.
Touchstream LP