Friday, January 12, 2007

Before iPhone: A Delicious Demo of "Multi-touch"

One of the most exciting elements of the iPhone demo that Steve Jobs gave at Macworld was the multi-touch interface--using gestures to manipulate objects onscreen, e.g. squeezing and spreading two fingers to resize photos on the screen.

Last February, Jeff Han rocked the room at the TED conference with a demo of multi-touch research from NYU. If you enjoyed the iPhone demo, this one is a treat. (And, yes, Jeff saw the keynote, too.)

I came across this link in a provocative Tech Dirtpost by Mike Masnick, who asks whether the iPhone really needs patents to be successful. Thanks to Dave Winer for pointing me to Tech Dirt.

Mickeleh's Take
: The miracle our patent system is that it both rewards and retards innovation while providing steady employment for lawyers and unearned income for trolls. The miracle of multi-touch is that we're in for some amazing new devices and very smudgy screens. Invest in screen-wipes.

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