“Minority Report becomes a reality” Jefferson Han
When the movie Minority Report came out, several people were more amazed by the technologies seen in the movie than the movie itself. In fact, in several scenes of the movie, the characters use a technology allowing them to have a direct interaction with the computer's screen; they can pause, zoom in or out, or even change the complete setting of the display. This is an example of an interface-free, touch driven computer screen. What was only made for a science fiction-movie, became reality soon thereafter. Multi-Touch technology has been known for a few decades, however, the majority of touch surfaces deployed were single touch; only earlier this year a young scientist has developed the touch screen interface, also known as a Multi-Touch. Multi-Touch technology is a human-computer interaction technique which enables users to interact with the system with more than one finger. It uses both pressure and movement sensors to allow a direct manipulation, there is no need for any external devices such as a mouse or a keyboard since the technology is able to recognize multiple simultaneous touch points including hand gestures and physical objects equipped with optical tags. For example, by having a Multi-Touch display, there is no need to press different buttons to enlarge a picture, instead, we could manage the same directly by touching the screen, with both of our hands to personalize the picture; therefore, the technology provides a rich interaction of multiple fingers or hands, which means multiple users can interact with the device at once.
Advantages of Multi-Touch technology
The advantages of a Multi -Touch technology for organizations are all the opportunities one single device can offer.It is an intuitive device, they are no instructions, allowing organizations to have a complete flexibility on how to work with the device. Therefore, each organization can customize its home page in order to suit its target market. The Multi-Touch technology is fast and we are able on one device to exploit skills and knowledge we have acquired by living in today's society. Finally, due to the direct interaction, we can navigate maps, data and photos. Hence, it decreases several operating costs because all the necessary tools for marketing are provided with Multi-Touch technology; resulting in a competitive advantage for businesses who might use it. Furthermore, several people can work on the same surface, improving communication and cooperative work. As we all know, the more an organization is working as a team, the more likely is the organization to succeed.
Disadvantages of Multi-Touch technology
Since the multi-touch technology is a new technology, the price to purchase the technology ranges between $5000 and $10000 per unit, making it expensive for small businesses. It may lower down the cost of marketing for some businesses, but for others who may not emphasize marketing at the same degree, may find it expensive to invest in it. Furthermore, this technology may not suit all businesses; before applying it we have to make sure that it is beneficial for the organization.
references:
Bill, Buxton. "Multi-Touch Systems That Have Known and Loved." Bill Buxton. 12 Jan. 2007. 24
Sept. 2007
"Gates Digs Surface Computing." Business Week. 30 May 2007. 28 Sept. 2007
"Microsoft Surface." Wikipedia. 2 Oct. 2007. 24 Sept. 2007
"Minority Report Becomes Reality." YouTube. 06 Aug. 2006. 22 Sept. 2007
