Multi Touch Case Study

What is a multi touch?

Multi-touch is a method of input on a touchscreen that allows two or more fingers to be used on the screen at one time. Apple's iPhone is famous for introducing multi-touch to the cell phone world by using it to allow pinching and stretching gestures on the screen to control zooming. Multi-touch is something typically associated with capacitive touchscreen displays rather than with more common resistive touchscreen displays.

Source: http://www.mobileburn.com/definition.jsp?term=multi-touch

In computing, multi-touch refers to a touch sensing surface's (trackpad or touchscreen) ability to recognize the presence of two or more points of contact with the surface. This plural-point awareness is often used to implement advanced functionality such as pinch to zoom or activating predefined programs.

In an effort of disambiguation or marketing classification some companies further breakdown the various definitions of multi-touch. An example of this is 3M defining multi-touch as a touch-screen's ability to register three or more distinct positions

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-touch

What problems does multitouch technology solve?

Helps people with disabilities - Helps autistic students to speak to and communicate with others.

Replace the use of mouse and keyboard - For users who cannot grasp a mouse and want the functionality of a PC. (e.g the Dell Latitude XT tablet.)

Minimize clutter with portable device - Such as the Android operating systems for smartphones has support for multi-touch. Users can manage emails, contacts, calendars and hold virtual meetings through a built-in webcam and microphone.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of a multitouch interface? How useful is it? Explain.

Extremely good for object manipulations - Touch, drag, “pinch” to zoom in and out, slide finger up and down or sideways as if they were physical objects without moving a mouse, pressing buttons or striking keys. For...