Multi-touch User Interface
Abut 10 days ago Apple filed a patent for a touch screen user interface that could respond to more than one touch point at a time. Ever since then, the web has been a buzz with excitement and fantasy about what that means for upcoming Apple products. The most common speculations, fueled by other patents filed around the same time, are a full screen video iPod and a tablet Mac.
Once the speculation frenzy started, this video surfaced and is an excellent demonstration of what you can do with a multi-touch user interface. Created by Jeff Han and team at the Media Research Lab at NYU, the applications shown include drawing, typing, gaming, DJing and most impressively: panning and zooming through maps and topographical models.
Whether Apple is just claiming territory or is actually working on a device that will use a multi-touch user interface is unknown, but obviously we're giddy with anticipation over the latter.
