In Monterey hat gestern die TED2007 begonnen. Bruno Guissani liefert wieder exzellentes Liveblogging für alle, die nicht dabei sein können. (TED2008 ist übrigens auch schon ausverkauft.)

Jeff Han, regelmäßige Leser mögen sich an ihn erinnern, ist nach 2006 (siehe Video oben) nun zum zweiten Mal auf der TED. Diesmal zeigt er seine interaction wall (siehe Foto unten), ein noch größerer Multitouchscreen mit noch mehr Möglichkeiten. Giussani berichtet:

It’s an amazing thing: enlarging a picture requires only touching it with two fingers and moving them apart — with the file following their movements and spreading on the screen. There is basically no structured interface to his device: they just “ navigates“ in the information, zooming in and out of maps or tilting them or adding graphic elements or redistributing images on the screen just by moving their fingers on them.  They add layers of images — a map on top of a map, for example, where the one on top acts as a „lens“. They have built in dozens of applications, and functionalities that make it even more effective: drawing a circle for example initiates a menu, etc.

Und klar, Giussani bringt auch die Usability-ProblemeHerausforderungen zur Sprache, die neulich schon auf dem Fischmarkt Thema waren (siehe dort in den Kommentaren):

„The most interesting thing is that when people first use this, they tend to go with one finger, then retract it: we basically have to un-teach people what they have learned so far about computing, and convince them that they can use several fingers, that several people can work on the screen at once, that you can actually use a random number of touchpoints, etc“. The Apple iPhone, when it comes out, may help: it will also come with a multitouch screen, although it’s so small that it won’t make for a very interesting multitouch device (Jeff’s „wall“ is 8 feet wide). This is a mindboggling breakthrough technology.