Inputs

Amraam · 26 Oct 2015 at 14:00

Does anyone sit back and think, why, in 2015, are we still bound to physical KB and mouse? Tablets have moved on a lot and brought touchscreen to many homes, but using a desktop with a keyboard and mouse is still pretty old.

I wonder how long it'll be before they are phased out and gestures are more common? I'm thinking more like Minority Report. Smart TVs have had them for a while, and whilst a much simpler device, I'm curious to know when gesture/virtual device interaction will become more norm.

What I really want is the Omni Tool from Mass Effect. That would be awesome

paradigm · 26 Oct 2015 at 14:03

You mean like https://www.leapmotion.com/product/desktop/

Rroff · 26 Oct 2015 at 14:08

I've played with a lot of input devices and never found anything that just works as well all around for desktop use so far - especially gaming and longer typing sessions.

I've been tempted to setup a smaller touchscreen alongside my main monitors though for some stuff - would be quite handy for media playback controls, incidental web browsing, etc.

Werewolf · 26 Oct 2015 at 14:11

You've been able to get touchscreen monitors for a couple of decades, including some pretty good ones over the last 10 years or so.

The main reason keyboard and mouse (or similar) is still the standard (and likely will be for a very long time), is that it's simple, versatile, it works, and is precise.
The likes of Minority report controls are awesome for TV and film, but require a lot of room to use, and are less precise than current keyboard/mouse tech (less precise than 30 year old keyboard/mice even).
For most people, most of the time precision and ease of use trumps fancy.

ttaskmaster · 26 Oct 2015 at 14:26

I have a variety of touchscreen interfaces and have used a couple of in-air gesture ones.
They all SUCK to use.

I insist on an old HTC Desire Z with Andy 2.3, because it has physical keys that I can feel and get a physical response from using. Touchscreen phones are awful, even those with "haptic feedback" or whatever term you want for 'buzzes when you press something'. With physical controls, I can feel where they are before I use them and can even tell when I've hit the wrong one. Works far better for me and, based on how often I see people repeatedly deleting and retyping on a touchscreen, I'd say they miss physical buttons too.

paradigm · 26 Oct 2015 at 14:39

ttaskmaster said:
I insist on an old HTC Desire Z with Andy 2.3, because it has physical keys that I can feel and get a physical response from using. Touchscreen phones are awful, even those with "haptic feedback" or whatever term you want for 'buzzes when you press something'. With physical controls, I can feel where they are before I use them and can even tell when I've hit the wrong one. Works far better for me and, based on how often I see people repeatedly deleting and retyping on a touchscreen, I'd say they miss physical buttons too.

This is the reason I'm interested in the Blackberry Priv. Not only a modern Android OS, but physical keys!

ttaskmaster · 26 Oct 2015 at 14:43

paradigm said:
This is the reason I'm interested in the Blackberry Priv. Not only a modern Android OS, but physical keys!

Still a bit small, though.
The HTC is a slider, so you have the height of the screen (ie the longer side) as the keyboard width, rather than this having the screen width as the keyboard width.

paradigm · 26 Oct 2015 at 14:52

ttaskmaster said:
Still a bit small, though.
The HTC is a slider, so you have the height of the screen (ie the longer side) as the keyboard width, rather than this having the screen width as the keyboard width.

I get that, but it's as good as it looks like we are going to get with a modern handset.

I'll certainly get my hands on one before making judgement.

ttaskmaster · 26 Oct 2015 at 15:19

paradigm said:
I'll certainly get my hands on one before making judgement.

I'll take a look, sure, but so far it looks slightly worse than the Motorola Flipout keyboard. I've used quite a few such devices over the years (decades?), so like to think I have a fair idea of what makes for good ones.