The Apple Tablet: The Magic of “Hover”
In my last post I discussed the idea of media delivery and how media and advertising will be hyperlinked. Since I’m a pretty huge interface nerd (I love studying and designing web-based interfaces), I’ve been thinking more about the interface design for hyperlinks.
Please pay special attention to this patent that Apple filed a year ago which tracks non-touch, or “hovering” gestures. Such a technology would mean that your iPhone or iTablet/iSlate/Whatever would be able to sense when your fingers are hovering over — but not touching — the screen.
Interface-wise, this is perfect for hyperlinking from video. For instance, when you see an object in a show that you want to know more about, you place your finger above the screen without touching it. The tablet should then bring up a little pop-up (much like Vh1′s Pop-Up Video) which follows the on-screen object and contains little widgets of information like who sells this product and what its name is; little buttons like “Find out more…” or “Share this with a friend…” Likewise, if you hover your hands over the bottom of the screen, the device should bring up a virtual keyboard so you can start typing, or a virtual playback remote so you can pause, fast forward, etc..
Hovering would be great because it would eliminate the need to press a button to bring up a touchscreen interface. The device would merely sense where your fingers are and contextually bring up the required interface so you can start tapping away. It also makes it such that video doesn’t need to pause as you hover over things — and you could hover your fingers over multiple objects of interest and see contextual pop-ups for each. Also, making hovering an analog input method (i.e. the device senses whether your finger is close to the screen or further away) could be very useful for manipulating 3D objects in the interface.
It is unknown whether hovering will appear in this iteration of the Apple tablet. Although an unconfirmed report suggested that users will be “surprised” at how they interact with it. Could this be a nod towards hovering?
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3 Comments
I wonder how the technology, once available, will affect the ways directors and editors take care of things. Imagine the frustration (or fun) when the user is trying to interact with something on the screen when they cut to another shot before the user can actually do anything.
I fear that these touch screens and “almost-touch” screens are going to work against me. I plan on developing something debilitating in my old age. Parkinson’s, maybe. This stuff bodes bad for my futures.
I think that this allows the creation of an infuriating version of Whack A Mole where the “moles” dodge your hits; it could also be extremely useful for elderlies b/c it would allow interfaces to be “magnetic” — i.e., as you hover your finger over the screen, the interface moves to intercept the eventual tap.
That could be potentially great.