The Old is New Again

My first computer was a Victor 9000, and it could be outfitted with a touchscreen. One of HP's first personal computers boasted the touchscreen as standard equipment; the marketing used a butterfly landing on the screen.

Problem was, people didn't want to work all day long with their hand in the air. Precision was limited to the size of a finger end. And then there was the issue of smudging the screen.

Back then in 1983, mice were unknown and tablets were too expensive; touchscreens were seen as the way to go -- but they never really took off. Touchscreens didn't become popular until PalmPilots and ATMs a decade ago.

Roland Piquepaille of ZDnet reports that the University of Buffalo is trying again:

"...scientists are hoping that the "Fingertip Digitizer" will kick off the next phase in computer interfaces by harnessing people's learned physical motions and movement to kill the UI learning curve. All one needs to do is simply slip the sleeve onto their fingers and the device's thin-film embedded force sensors and tri-axial accelerometer will track their movements in real-time, even providing tactile feedback corresponding to physical motions and virtual environments."

This touchscreen interface is bi-directional:

"For example, if you move your hand to pick up a ball, you will not only instruct the computer to grab the ball, but feel the pressure and weight of the ball in your hand..."