Rock & Rails: Microsoft's evolution of multitouch

Multitouch interfaces were the Big New Thing when they debuted with the iPhone, but since then, not much has changed - Apple's added a few more fingers, but that's about it. Touch interfaces suffer a bit from the lack of, yes, buttons: there are fewer ways to indicate different intentions when interacting with the same objects or locations. Microsoft has stepped in to add some interesting ideas, which they call Rock & Rails - the video is tech-geek heavy, but still intriguing. Using your fist, or a straight or curved hand, they show all kinds of ways your intentions can be made more clear, and your work made more efficient. There's definitely a learning curve - but hey, we all had to learn to type at some point, too, and it was worth it!

[via Gizmodo]