It didn't die: it was bought by Apple.

See: iPhone, and the flashy new touchpads.

That's a success, just not for people who liked the original product...

That's a personal estimate. I don't know why there isn't research into the TouchStream: there should be. It's why I talk about it at every opportunity, in the hope that all this work is built on rather than forgotten...

Mice and keyboards certainly win in a comparison between somebody who's been using a mouse and keyboard for >1 month and someone who just picked up a TouchStream. Doing a fair comparison would be quite a lot of work, unfortunately.

But for me personally I can assure you that I work more quickly on a TouchStream than with mouse+keyboard. This doesn't prove anything, since it's only one data point, but using a mouse+keyboard is a pretty obvious barrier to work. (Which, BTW, is chiefly email and programming. Editing code is far faster with integrated mousing.)

Again from experience I must disagree. It's bad for a keyboard to have no travel because you miss the precise "did I press the key or not" feedback. But it's not bad for your hands.

It's bad for a keyboard to have no pressure needed because without some clever multitouch technology there's no way to tell whether you meant to press the key and it would get very annoying.

There are lots of reasons for keyboards to be as they are, but I don't think comfort is one of them.

Presumably you can do the wrong thing with a TouchStream and hammer away at it, but I haven't found that to be necessary.

I disagree: the keyboard and mouse do not work really well. What they are is really easy to start using, and good enough.

The TouchStream takes at least a month or two to get used to. Most people spent that long getting started with a keyboard, and aren't willing to invest the time again learning a new device. Nor is there any pressing need except for power users.

For those power users, though, the TouchStream presents a potentially big[1] boost to productivity and comfort. At least, that's what I found.

[1] Where "big" is ~20%. That's only big if you're working 8 hours a day...

Have you ever actually used a Fingerworks TouchStream?

I have, for years, and you're simply wrong: typing on a TouchStream requires less force than typing on a mechanical keyboard.

It's "touch" for a reason. You don't press, you touch.

I work 8 hours a day on a Fingerworks TouchStream.

I can say with absolutely no hesitation that it's much, much nicer on my hands than the keyboard+mouse combo was. Actually that's why I switched in the first place.

This is easily solved, the touchpad can be a keyboard:

YouTube video

People get scared of using a touchpad as a keyboard, but it's much better for lots of reasons. Chords/gestures are much more powerful than keys, and you get integrated mousing.

They did, but not enough people bought it.

Youtube video

This keyboard is much, much better than a normal keyboard+mouse combo. But it takes more than a few minutes to learn, and it was always low volume, so they weren't a huge commercial success.

I can offer direct insight into your questions courtesy of years of experience using the Fingerworks TouchStream:

http://www.fingerworks.com/ST_product.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDW5zyjhCbc

MultiTouch devices are very precise. In fact, moreso than a mouse for fine movements, because they take an average over the whole contact area so subpixel movements are possible.

You can have a keyboard. See the TouchStream. It works really well and is more efficient than a mouse+keyboard combo. Use of MultiTouch makes the keyboard itself vastly more efficient: gestures and chords are all available without leaving the keyboard.

I've played Doom 3 using the TouchStream. It's not as good as a keyboard+mouse combo but I'll bet it beats gamepad.