01-06-2012, 12:43 PM
Designing Gestural Interfaces: Touchscreens and Interactive Devices
[attachment=23834]
Abstract
If you want to get ahead in this new era of interaction design, this is the reference you need. Nintendo's Wii and Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch have made gestural interfaces popular, but until now there's been no complete source of information about the technology. Designing Gestural Interfaces provides you with essential information about kinesiology, sensors, ergonomics, physical computing, touchscreen technology, and new interface patterns - all you need to know to augment your existing skills in "traditional" web design, software, or product development. Packed with informative illustrations and photos, this book helps you: Get an overview of technologies surrounding touchscreens and interactive environments Learn the process of designing gestural interfaces, from documentation to prototyping to communicating to the audience what the product does Examine current patterns and trends in touchscreen and gestural design Learn about the techniques used by practicing designers and developers today See how other designers have solved interface challenges in the past Look at future trends in this rapidly evolving field Only six years ago, the gestural interfaces introduced in the film Minority Report were science fiction. Now, because of technological, social, and market forces, we see similar interfaces deployed everywhere. Designing Gestural Interfaces will help you enter this new world of possibilities.
Introducing:
A man wearing special gloves stands in front of a large, translucent screen. He
waves his hand in front of it, and objects on the screen move. It’s as though he’s
conducting an orchestra or is some sort of high-tech sorcerer’s apprentice, making
objects fly about with just a sweep of his arm. He makes another gesture,
and a video begins to play. With both hands, he stretches the video to a larger
size, filling more of the screen. It’s like magic.
Another place, another time: a different man stands in front of an audience. He’s
running his fingers over a table-size touchscreen before him as though he is
a keyboard player in a rock band, his fingers rapidly manipulating images on
the screen by dragging them around. He’s making lines appear on-screen with
his fingers and turning them into silky, ink-like paintings. He’s playing, really—
showing off. He drags his fingers across the surface and leaves a trail of bubbles.
It’s also like magic.
The first man doesn’t really exist, although you’d probably recognize the actor
playing him: Tom Cruise. The scene is from the movie Minority Report (2002), and
it gave the general public its first look at a computer that responds to gestures
instead of to speech, a keyboard, or a mouse. It was an impressive feat of visual
effects, and it made a huge impression on people everywhere, especially interaction
designers, some of whom had been working on or thinking about similar
systems for years.
The second man does exist, and his name is Jeff Han. Not only did his jumbo
touchscreen devices influence Minority Report, but his live demonstrations—
first privately and then publicly at the 2006 TED conference*—will likely go
down in computer history near the “Mother of All Demos” presentation that
Doug Engelbart made in 1968, in which he showed now-familiar idioms such as
* Watch the demo yourself at http://www.tedindex.php/talks/view/id/65.
1
2 Chapter 1: Introducing Interactive Gestures
email, hypertext, and the mouse. Han’s demos sparked thousands of conversations,
blog posts, emails, and commentary.
Figure 1-1.Jeff Han demos a multitouch touchscreen at the 2006 TED conference. Since then, Han
has created Perceptive Pixel, a company that produces these devices for high-end clients. Courtesy
TED Conferences, LLC.
Since then, consumer electronics manufacturers such as Nintendo, Apple, Nokia,
Sony Ericsson, LG, and Microsoft have all released products that are controlled
using interactive gestures. Within the next several years, it’s not an exaggeration
to say that hundreds of millions of devices will have gestural interfaces. A
gesture, for the purposes of this book, is any physical movement that a digital
system can sense and respond to without the aid of a traditional pointing device
such as a mouse or stylus. A wave, a head nod, a touch, a toe tap, and even
a raised eyebrow can be a gesture.
In addition to touchscreen kiosks that populate our airports and execute our
banking as ATMs, the most famous of the recent products that use gestures are
Nintendo’s Wii and Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch. The Wii has a set of wireless
controllers that users hold to play its games. Players make movements in space
that are then reflected in some way on-screen. The iPhone and iPod Touch are
devices that users control via touching the screen, manipulating digital objects
with a tap of a fingertip.
[attachment=23834]
Abstract
If you want to get ahead in this new era of interaction design, this is the reference you need. Nintendo's Wii and Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch have made gestural interfaces popular, but until now there's been no complete source of information about the technology. Designing Gestural Interfaces provides you with essential information about kinesiology, sensors, ergonomics, physical computing, touchscreen technology, and new interface patterns - all you need to know to augment your existing skills in "traditional" web design, software, or product development. Packed with informative illustrations and photos, this book helps you: Get an overview of technologies surrounding touchscreens and interactive environments Learn the process of designing gestural interfaces, from documentation to prototyping to communicating to the audience what the product does Examine current patterns and trends in touchscreen and gestural design Learn about the techniques used by practicing designers and developers today See how other designers have solved interface challenges in the past Look at future trends in this rapidly evolving field Only six years ago, the gestural interfaces introduced in the film Minority Report were science fiction. Now, because of technological, social, and market forces, we see similar interfaces deployed everywhere. Designing Gestural Interfaces will help you enter this new world of possibilities.
Introducing:
A man wearing special gloves stands in front of a large, translucent screen. He
waves his hand in front of it, and objects on the screen move. It’s as though he’s
conducting an orchestra or is some sort of high-tech sorcerer’s apprentice, making
objects fly about with just a sweep of his arm. He makes another gesture,
and a video begins to play. With both hands, he stretches the video to a larger
size, filling more of the screen. It’s like magic.
Another place, another time: a different man stands in front of an audience. He’s
running his fingers over a table-size touchscreen before him as though he is
a keyboard player in a rock band, his fingers rapidly manipulating images on
the screen by dragging them around. He’s making lines appear on-screen with
his fingers and turning them into silky, ink-like paintings. He’s playing, really—
showing off. He drags his fingers across the surface and leaves a trail of bubbles.
It’s also like magic.
The first man doesn’t really exist, although you’d probably recognize the actor
playing him: Tom Cruise. The scene is from the movie Minority Report (2002), and
it gave the general public its first look at a computer that responds to gestures
instead of to speech, a keyboard, or a mouse. It was an impressive feat of visual
effects, and it made a huge impression on people everywhere, especially interaction
designers, some of whom had been working on or thinking about similar
systems for years.
The second man does exist, and his name is Jeff Han. Not only did his jumbo
touchscreen devices influence Minority Report, but his live demonstrations—
first privately and then publicly at the 2006 TED conference*—will likely go
down in computer history near the “Mother of All Demos” presentation that
Doug Engelbart made in 1968, in which he showed now-familiar idioms such as
* Watch the demo yourself at http://www.tedindex.php/talks/view/id/65.
1
2 Chapter 1: Introducing Interactive Gestures
email, hypertext, and the mouse. Han’s demos sparked thousands of conversations,
blog posts, emails, and commentary.
Figure 1-1.Jeff Han demos a multitouch touchscreen at the 2006 TED conference. Since then, Han
has created Perceptive Pixel, a company that produces these devices for high-end clients. Courtesy
TED Conferences, LLC.
Since then, consumer electronics manufacturers such as Nintendo, Apple, Nokia,
Sony Ericsson, LG, and Microsoft have all released products that are controlled
using interactive gestures. Within the next several years, it’s not an exaggeration
to say that hundreds of millions of devices will have gestural interfaces. A
gesture, for the purposes of this book, is any physical movement that a digital
system can sense and respond to without the aid of a traditional pointing device
such as a mouse or stylus. A wave, a head nod, a touch, a toe tap, and even
a raised eyebrow can be a gesture.
In addition to touchscreen kiosks that populate our airports and execute our
banking as ATMs, the most famous of the recent products that use gestures are
Nintendo’s Wii and Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch. The Wii has a set of wireless
controllers that users hold to play its games. Players make movements in space
that are then reflected in some way on-screen. The iPhone and iPod Touch are
devices that users control via touching the screen, manipulating digital objects
with a tap of a fingertip.