Well said, or drive a car with a mouse.

You are correct, Vista is seeing this as a mouse device. Win7 will not. Please install the Win7 Beta (on a separate partition if you like) and tell me of your experience. If you could be so kind to also take some brief notes about the steps you had to take and things that take place while doing so, it would be very helpful as well. I'm interested to hear about the functionality of the NEC natively. Vista and 7 are totally different in regards to touch. I think you will be delighted with the results. You can find my personal email on my blog, http://rongeorge.com/ and would love to use you as a use case at work.

These are very valid points and I agree with your statements as a whole. The one thing I would say is to not limit multi-touch to just the screen. Also think of touchpads and touch keyboards.You wont rub your fingers raw, in fact, the lightest touch you can do is actually the best for speed and accuracy. If you feel any discomfort at all with a mouse, imagine placing your arm down on a wrist pad, and then not moving your wrist at all for any reason. Everything is accomplished with your fingers and with slight gestures. The "horse blinders" that most people have are not their own fault. Its the fault of technology producing a linear technology and method for user's interacting with systems. When the typical person uses a computer, they go about it in a very linear fashion. Doing one thing, then the next, then the next... and the mouse, because it is a linear acting device, works great.

Think about how you drive a car. This is a very un-linear method of controlling something. This is how I see the world of computers going. As understanding expands and user's open up to the idea of multiple things happening at once at different times, more input devices and methods will be needed.

The multi-touch Touchsmart tablet from HP has been the best selling tablet for about 4 months now. People are buying the technology because it makes the time spent at the computer more useful. I use a touch tablet and when I go to another team or meeting, people are astounded at how fast I can do things. Its just a new way of thinking and its going to be awesome! :)

Thank you for your reply. You have some good points and I don't think you are being a troll. I'll try to answer them.

1. Its very true, and if you go read Bill Buxton's multi-touch paper, you will also get a great history of the multi-touch input device. The key here is using an input device, with having the OS recognize it as such so it allows you to have multiple numbers, and mixed numbers of each. The main difference is that its now a recognized device seperate from the already existing devices. So, if you use a Wacom tablet, yes you are using a stylus, and that is recognized as such by the API. If you use a touch, right beside your Wacom stylus.... it sees a touch, not a mouse click, nor a stylus.

The difference isn't so much in the UX, as much as its in the software backend of it. The benefit of it though, is you can have much more rich interactions using a multitude of different manipulations and gestures from mixed sources. It allows for offhand interactions, tapping with your thumb as you are about to paint in Photoshop, etc.

So an iPhone sees touch, and you can use a jury-rigged stylus, but thats because you are tricking the phone into recognizing a touch.

You also bring up an interesting challenge about selling the multiple inputs. I think what I would say to you to sell it would be something like:

What if you never had to remember another shortcut key combination again? CTRL C is a thing of the past.... never reach your pinky and thumb to stretch to hit two keys again.

2. You have a valid point about recognizing who made the choice to buy Fingerworks. I would seriously buy this person dinner in a heartbeat. Whoever that was, really turned the tide for Apple as a whole and saved their company.

Now let me give you an idea why I put so much value on him. They had literally, almost nothing in regards to touch. They had a small team that was struggling. They recognized and bought Fingerworks and by doing that, brought in one of the preeminent geniuses of the input world. I think Wayne is far underrecognized for his contribution to touch and multi-touch and deserves all the credit and thanks we can throw at it. It would be different, if he went to a team of IXDers and helped out... much like what I am doing. No, its different because when he went, there was nothing, and he created a wonderful system. I hope that explains my point a bit better? That's not a dig on Apple at all. I think it was brilliant and commend them for scooping up genius.

***********these are MY own personal opinions and not the opinions of my employer, they are mine and mine alone, just like the ones on my blog, http://rongeorge.com/ *****************

I work at MSFT and just happen to work on the Advanced Design Team that designs Natural User Interfaces for several products around the Org. I myself specialize in touch and multi-touch devices and gestural languages. The thing you have to remember, is that Touch, Multi-Touch, and Pen are all already supported in the core of the Windows 7 operating system. This isn't a small feat. No other OS has that today. The bigger fact is that we have had that for over a year now. The API recognizing the difference, and the ability to track so many targets is monumental in the input field. Ask any interaction designer and if they know the history, it will all go back to input devices and drivers "tricking" the OS into thinking it was something different rather than for what it truly is. Silverlight 3 also has this functionality already built in. These are core functions that allow any software developer around the globe to start building multi-touch applications right NOW. Not next year, but right now. The code is there.. build it.

We are by far not "merely dabbling" I think that's ludicrous. Do you have a multi-touch device and is it working right now? Yes. That is not dabbling. There is a lot of great stuff that Microsoft has put out with this release and so many more great things to come. The one thing to remember though, is that as a platform, we have to do things thinking of other developers in mind. I came from the Surface Team before going to ADT and want to clarify something. Surface does respond to touch, but remember that it is a vision based system and WAY ahead of the competition. It has hover, item recognition, and so many other capabilites that other companies can also build on. Once again, it is a platform. Don't confuse them, they are separate devices but both with very rich interactions and uses.

I also see all this about Apple and the iPhone. If you want to give credit where credit is due.... you should all say Wayne Westerman and not Apple. He is the genius that Apple bought and brought over to save their failing tablet and turn it into a phone. His company, Fingerworks, made an incredible product that still has very loyal fans.

I stopped using a mouse 2 years ago, and have never looked back.

PS: If any of you are in Seattle and would like a demonstration of Surface's capabilities along with a Win7 touch demonstration, please drop me a line, contact info is at my blog. I would be happy to show you around campus as long as you write about it here. Thanks for reading.

I belong to Match.com here in Los Angeles and I liken it to shooting fish in a barrel. If you have a decent tech job and do not have the inclination to hide heads in the freezer or stroke a rabbit's paw and call it "my precious" you will score.

The amount of decent looking people out there that just want someone that is 'normal' is dumbfounding. The majority of men in LA either have an ego that you need to help through a door or demands that even Stalin would shy away from. You also get your small bit of crazies, but I really enjoy those because it actually gives me a reason to blog.