Now THIS is interesting subject. There has been many good opinions how gestures should work. This subject needs ALOT testing. Especially when talking of 3D enviroments. I’m going to write my opinions short.

1. Gestures should not be the only way to do things (I mean menus and such). I mean that is someone doesn’t know the gesture he/she cannot know it exist unless someone else teaches it. With touch screen it is very easy to push buttons.

2. Simplicity. Must keep it simple. Most of basic things must be doable with one finger and if not one finger, with one hand. Keep in mind that when there’s not keyboard, there is not keyboard shortcuts either. Other hand must be free to do thing like selecting commands ect. How many professional photoshop users DOESN’T use keyboard shortcuts?

3. Contents. Basically, what gesture does depends the contents under it. (zoom, rotate, panning ect.)

3.We’re in edge of UI revolution here. We must first develop these systems to emulate mouse, but later when OS’s interface is designed for touching only, you don’t have to think mouse anymore. On touch screen it is very easy to click something. Easier than mouse. But one thing is missing: mouseover. So you have to be sure when and where to click or not.

There has been gestures for OK and Cancel.... i don’t get it. Why not just a button to press?

Here is my suggestions for BASIC gestures. Of course any single program can use any of these and more of them which are not conflicted with the basic gestures.
And now I’m talking actions within same program window. Of course you can have 3 different programs and all the gestures can be used at all of them at the same time.

Basic select and click - Just a click, nothing else. Keep in mind that in multitouch system (big screen i mean) you cant have gesture of clicking with both fingers. What if two users click at the same time?
-> Finger down, finger up. <- some sort of timing is needed. Not too fast, not too slow.

Panning - Computer screen is limited and you have to be able to move windows contents easily. This doesn't remove the need of sidebars unless advanced user wants it!
-One finger can pan screens contents. Then it doesn't zoom accidently. BUT you can pan and zoom at the same time of course!
->Problems: text selection

Zooming - we’ve all seen this.
-Two fingers pinching. That’s it. Works together with panning. Also rotating but not when speaking of window contents. (example internet browser)
->Problems: not very much…
Rotating - we’ve all seen this too. This depends what is the object under the fingers. Normally you can rotate windows maybe, but not their contents.
-Two fingers. Simultanious zoom and panning

3D-world needs alot testing. Very difficult to imagine the gestures without testing. maybe the panning and zooming are the same, but rotate.... hmm. Have to think that with better time.

there has been many gestures for accessing some kind of menu, but i think it should be just a button

some have made a website which represent a study of mouse gestures used as “touching” feeling ; no click anymore : http://www.dontclick.it/

hope this will help

ynk - 28 February 2008 08:11 AM

some have made a website which represent a study of mouse gestures used as “touching” feeling ; no click anymore : http://www.dontclick.it/

hope this will help

That is very nice and somehow innovative indeed. Seen that before tough. But when speaking of multitouch, we shoud say “only click”, because there is no way to do things without touching anymore…

The area of ‘no touch’ seems to be emerging. Apologies if this is going off topic.
The following example has been very well positioned and is being called ‘The worlds first no touch interactive window’

I think it might use this technology: http://www.eyeclick.com/products_503.html?md=adwordse&cm=ongoing&ag=eyetouch&gclid=CKT21KTo4ZECFQUHEgodGH8pfg

Also I use a DI system and it will activate depending on the calibration quite high above the table without touching it.
I think there are some great gestural uses for natural user interaction without needing a touch or click.

This group appear to have developed a stereoscopic camera tracking system of some kind which encourages more natural gestural movements.
http://naturalinteraction.org/index.php?entry=entry070303-142746
There’s also some really interesting work on floors etc here also…

Finally who can forgot the wii, which is pioonering no click gesture based interaction in our homes.
This looks like the next step though:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/zcam-depth-camera-could-be-wii-challenger/zcam-3d-camera-is-like-wii-without-wiimote-and-minority-report-without-gloves-334426.php

u could use touchevent as a mouseover and not as a click, and so use dontclick.it navigation system

Some nice flash gesture recognition here: http://www.bytearray.org/?p=91

it’s based on PDA gestures recognition i think we shoudn’t use this in MT and prefer a more complex way, a true writing recognition with forms recognition alorythms

could somebosy point me to any guide, or example of scalling and rotating algorithm?  like is used in photo app?  I am trying to program some simple alike thing on LibAvg+Python, I have an image node, which has the following parameters:
width, height, x position, y position, pivot x, pivot y, anlge (in radians), also I have events, in this moment, for mouse - current mouse pointer possition - event.x and event.y. i have also initial position of mouse pointer, when click is happening.

as I dont have a multituch device, I am trying to simulate it and fixing one point (touch), and using mouse pointer as a second point (touch) to make scalling or rotating a image node, but stuck in algorithm, what whould I consider?  how that zooming alorithm works?

zviangi - 27 March 2008 07:23 PM

could somebosy point me to any guide, or example of scalling and rotating algorithm?  like is used in photo app?  I am trying to program some simple alike thing on LibAvg+Python, I have an image node, which has the following parameters:
width, height, x position, y position, pivot x, pivot y, anlge (in radians), also I have events, in this moment, for mouse - current mouse pointer possition - event.x and event.y. i have also initial position of mouse pointer, when click is happening.

as I dont have a multituch device, I am trying to simulate it and fixing one point (touch), and using mouse pointer as a second point (touch) to make scalling or rotating a image node, but stuck in algorithm, what whould I consider?  how that zooming alorithm works?

look at the the AS3 rotatable scalable class in the svn…

Falcon4ever - 28 March 2008 06:52 AM

look at the the AS3 rotatable scalable class in the svn…

that is in .fla, right?  I will, as I get windows and CS. I am using linux, want to do something on Libavg

zviangi - 28 March 2008 07:02 AM

Falcon4ever - 28 March 2008 06:52 AM

look at the the AS3 rotatable scalable class in the svn…

that is in .fla, right?  I will, as I get windows and CS. I am using linux, want to do something on Libavg

no it is not the .fla it is an .as file (actionscrip class)

i wrote a small class which is still in dev but can be found at http://blog.martian-arts.org/

it’s called “Playdoh”, and allows drag, rotate, and scalable capabilities

is there a way of creating our own customized gestures???

I am new to all this but something that I wondered about while reading these posts is why put a set in at all why not have a program that will go through each command with a defult setting or suggestion perhaps but the user sets the system up the way they want to,
The other thing that needs to be considered it if a handicaped person was going to use the system they may need to set the system up for there disability
Just an idea,

Where can one find for AS3 some of the other gestures which seem to use 3 blobs, two to hold the object and a third to do something else (for example the Panning or sliding effect)?