Windows 7 - Touch me

“Over the past few years, you've asked us to make some changes to Windows. We listened closely. Now it's time to share an early look at how we've used your feedback. Windows 7 is faster, more reliable, and makes it easier to do what you want. Both the everyday things and the killer is that really possible?" – cited from site
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/


For years Microsoft has been investing in many forms of natural interaction with PC's and devices. Through times engineers from Microsoft have been working to improve graphical user interface to make work faster and more comfortable. I remember a film which Microsoft published some years ago about technology in the future. In this film people use voice to communicate with computer and instead of keyboards they use touch screen. Every device is connected to the Internet even if it is a small gadget. People use them in a natural way contemporarily in videoconferences, booking tickets and writing notes (by pen in the special electronic paper).
It was like this:





Now Windows 7 recognizes the writing text and multi-touch support for touch screen. Speech recognition, something which was once considered science fiction, is enabling many Windows users to see, hear, and use their computers for the very first time.
Today we expect this technology to get widespread use and see it in public places like; devices in hotels, hospitals, retail establishments, restaurants and entertainment venues. Not only that it will look like an exclusive place (“wowww this place is so modern….”), but it’s really helpful! Touch is quickly becoming a common way of a direct interaction with software and device. Touch-enabled surfaces are very popular. They are in laptop touch pads, mobile phones, mp3 players, remote controls, GPS devices, and so on.

In Windows 7 Microsoft improves windows management to a better behaviour for touch. Like I have mentioned above that is multi touch. It means that you may use more than one finger to do something. You may also use touch gestures which we know from many applications for example: Opera web browser. In the basic set there are gestures like tap and drag, as well as scroll, back, forward, right-click, zoom in, zoom out, and rotate. Windows 7 is improving high dpi support which is necessary to a precision ‘click’ in small elements of user interface like small buttons or positions in the menu.
Please see this video about gestures:




And as a summary of this article please see this video.




How do you think, about these new varieties of communication: speaking to PC, touching or natural writing? What will be next? Maybe we should once again attentively read Lem’s books to know something more about our future?