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From: porten@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Jeffrey  Porten)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: the interface for the rest of us?
Message-ID: <42908@netnews.upenn.edu>
Date: 10 May 91 03:33:49 GMT
References: <9105021606.AA26962@lti2.lti.uucp> <1991May3.204023.6661@ico.isc.com> <1991May4.172440.1851@casbah.acns.nwu.edu> <1991May6.232937.6334@ico.isc.com> <1991May8.173534.26272@newcastle.ac.uk> <1271@uqcspe.cs.uq.oz.au>
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In article <1271@uqcspe.cs.uq.oz.au> brendan@cs.uq.oz.au writes:
>Oh while we are talking 3D displays, why not simply let you move your
>hand around whithin the display and pick up and use virtual objects such
>as pens or keyboards or compasses or rulers or whatever you like.

Do you have any idea how hard it would be to get people to use an interface
where they see themselves picking up an object, but receive NO other 
tactile feedback?  Sight alone in NO way would be able to give the sort
of input needed to handle objects; could you type if your hands were
entirely numb and you had no way of knowing which keys you hit until
you saw the results?  Extending the Mac interface to this sort of 3D
system, I can just picture thousands of users "fumbling" files into the
trashcan, opening the wrong files, etc.

--
Jeff Porten, Annenberg School for Communication, UPenn
             Graduate Group in American Civilization, UPenn

As per usual, my opinions are my own, not Penn's, Pugwash's, or anyone else's.