Sorry for double posting, but I had another idea. Shockdesign and I were thinking, the whole File hierarchy(folders within folders) would not be optimum for Multi-Touch. What if you just had a big ZUI enabled desk? And on this you put your files. They would be icons though, they would be what they represent. Text documents/code would be paper, pictures would be pictures, programs would be an object. You could also have widget type things, like calculators or clocks, that look like there real work counter part(or maybe cooler). The whole thing would be ZUI, so it would have infinite size, and all the objects would be able to rotate and resize, like PhotoApp. Then you would have sorting and searching templates.
ok seeing the amout of idea you guys are having on ways to change common interface, i will be starting a new website/workgroup on wimp alternatives and the multitouch integration.
I am contacting people on the kde and gnome projects to look for ways to work with them to implement new interface
I watched that dude give his lecture, some interesting points which I’d already read about, other than that I’m not that impressed. He’s obsessed with keyboard input for a start, has he not heard of MT!!
On a serious note, watch people use the Photo App for a bit, they easily loose pics. Imagine having tens of thousands of docs on a ZUI…
I dont like your idea xela , it’s not that practical.I really like how they implemented Zui on the fesability study video , and that’s how we should go about it also.
Yeah, I guess they could loose stuff pretty easy. I still think it must be rethought though. Maybe more of a tree view like Jeff Hans video? I still think we need to have the desktop be like that, where you could put frequently used items, and widgets. Why would we want to implement it like that video? I think it should be completely freeform, and you can arrange it however you want. Also, we want to use gestures, not tapping, to move around. Another thing we have to keep in mind, Modes limit functionality, make it harder to use, and should be avoided.
Your thoughts? Can we arrange a time when we are all on IRC? Larky, GabrielGb, shockdesign, Taha, Vlado what timezone are you guys in? I am Pacific Time(GMT -8?), and am free tomorrow for whenever.
Gabriel Gb: Can you get everyone on the forums so we can figure out who is doing what and how we plan on doing it? Vlado and I started a Linux Multi-Touch Distro, but were only is the design phase. I will definitely be a part of it, but I dont’ want to speak for Vlado. I think you are coming at it too fast though, you have already talked to developers and people, but you don’t even know what we are doing yet. We still have not designed the interface, which makes it kinda hard to code it Also, we don’t want a huge number of people doing it, that makes it really hard to manage.
Also, Multi-Touch is not built in to the next X11, it is just support for multiple input devices. We will still have to write a driver to handle TUIO, and thus multi-touch. If only software was plug n’ play:D Just out of curiosity, what OS do you run?
but when i say i started talking with different people, my approach right now is to have people from every part of computer programming to think of ways to change computer interaction, im also still on planning, but having people from linux and people from other parts of computer programming can help us in seeing all possibilities.
For most people in my workgroup thought they will start working with us when school starts in august 19th since they are, for most, students.
I strongly suggest we get in touch by msn or something like that since writing post in forum is not the most interactive and fastest way.
I run on vista as my main cpu since i work with asp.net pages and do some gaming.
I have a mac for my work in obj-c.
and a Cent Os box for web server developpement.
But i prefer linux and mac since they are way faster and easier.
Here are my specs :
Main : core 2 duo e6750, 8800gts 320, 3gig ram(2 x512 + 2 x 1gig), 320gig raid 0(2x160), dell 19” acl, Vista x64 Ultimate
Mac : Core 2 Duo e6750,8800gt,3 gig ram, 2x160 no raid, same monitor(on kvm), hackintosh homemade(i bought those 2 cpu @ the same time)
Linux : P4 3ghz, radeon 9250 pci(not pcie lol), 1gig ram, 80gig, same monitor, cent os 5
give me your feedbacks
Gabriel Gb : dmgame at hotmail dot com
PEACE
PS: If sometime i mispell a word you can tell me, my main language is french, I have no prob with speaking(since I gave some conference in england this year) but im not always that good in writing. thx
OK, Here is what we have gathered so far for those of you that havn’t been hanging around IRC. We will be writing the following things to make a Linux Distro fully multi-touch aware:
TUIO Driver for X11: Instead of taking the “Mouse Emulator” approach, where it just moves and clicks the cursor wherever a touch appears, we are writing a real X11 Driver. It will latch on to X11 using the X11 API, and act like a hardware mouse, only its source is not HID, but TUIO. it will leverage the MPX capabilities built into X11R7.5, which will allow it to work with Multi-Touch aware apps and non multi-touch aware apps side by side. This also does not require that the users build TUIO into their applications, it will be the same as writing any normal X11 application. Some non-MT apps may work with Multiple Touches, some may ignore extra touches, and some may crash, its really a toss up at the moment. GabrielGb has said he will create this driver.
Multi-Touch Application Framework: This will provide many muti-touch optimal widgets, like ZUI windows and Scalable elements. Also provides slightly larger widgets so it is easier to hit them with your finger. All this will be is a modified version of Lux(given nuiman and cerupcat are Ok with that), which will take X11 mouse elements instead of TUIO events. I will be creating this framework.
Multi-Touch Window Manager: This window manager will implement a ZUI, Rotatable and Scalable windows, gestures, and have no definition of Up or Down. it will probably be a modified version of Gnome or KDE. We don’t know who will be creating thing yet, but it will take many many people.
Multi-Touch Aware Apps: Not much to say here, its whatever our creative minds can come up with.
There has also been some talk about collaborating with the Ubuntu people to beat Microsoft and Apple to the Multi-Touch OS, but no one has actually contacted them yet. It would be great if someone that is a more “official” representative of NUIgroup could contact them.
when your user says things like “wait i’ll show you… (long pause) ... it’s gotta be around here somewhere ...(another pause)… oh hey I haven’t looked at this in a while” i don’t beleive you’ve made a very handy interface…
::edit::
here’s a cute idea : I like to call it CloudFlow.
Menu items (or other) are represented by squares that may contain any kind of visual information.
These squares have a gravitational attraction that runs in a circle around them.
If other squares are within this circle, they are repelled (this will help keeping squares from obscuring one another)
This way, the squares align in a rougly circular “cloud”.
Should a square be pushed off the screen, it is wrapped and will reappear on the other side.
Upon mouse-over, the gravitational circle of a cloud increases in size and intensity, so the other clouds arrange around the “moused” square in a halo.
To illustrate this better, i have written a java application (will run smoothly on all o/s’s without problems)
please bear in mind that this is a very quickly whipped up bit of software.
i guarantee it will run without any real problems, but sometimes squares may still obscure each other, etc.
I love it , great job , really fluid and fast , also demonstrates the concept really well. But still it’s kinda messy , for a novice user it might be a bit to overwhelming.
Thanks
Like I said, it still needs some tweaking and tuning and the demo features 60 or so squares which might be too much for one cloud.
This kind of system could also be used to display hierachical data by having clouds center around a parent object.
