Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!autodesk!robertj
From: robertj@Autodesk.COM (Young Rob Jellinghaus)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: the interface for the rest of us?
Message-ID: <4823@autodesk.COM>
Date: 14 May 91 02:23:12 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> <42908@netnews.upenn.edu>
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In article <42908@netnews.upenn.edu> porten@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Jeffrey  Porten) writes:
>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.

I don't get it.  You get no tactile feedback from using the mouse--the
only feedback is something getting highlighted or selected on the screen.
How is this any different from cyberspace?  You reach out to grab some-
thing and as you touch it it glows brighter?  No ambiguity whatsoever.
Even less, in fact, if you add sound.  Take a look at SonicFinder on the
Mac--as you click on something you hear a tone, dropping something into
the trash can creates a "crash" noise... there's no reason lack of tactile
feedback need impact the usability of a well-designed cyberspace.

--
Rob Jellinghaus                 | "Next time you see a lie being spread or
Autodesk, Inc.                  |  a bad decision being made out of sheer
robertj@Autodesk.COM            |  ignorance, pause, and think of hypertext."
{decwrl,uunet}!autodesk!robertj |    -- K. Eric Drexler, _Engines of Creation_