Have you noticed that a growing percentage of senior citizens have iPhones? That’s because touch technology is meant to be user-friendly. And, in the next few years, the software will become even more intuitive and easy-to-use. Eventually, touch technology will change the relationship we have with our computers, and the way we engage with the Internet and use social media.
Developers are at work on “haptic” technology for mobile phones and other devices. Haptic technology is currently being used in nonmobile areas; for example, in driving videogames, haptics make you feel like you’re actually driving a car. What will haptics mean for mobile phones? The technology will be able to respond to human touch with movement (such as vibration), and send movement to others (a rhythmic love tap, for example). Also, it will make a touch keyboard feel like a real keyboard; it will feel so real, that even if you close your eyes you will feel the demarcation of the keys on the flat screen. This should happen in the next year or so.
Recent Apple patents also suggest that the next iMac will be touchable. On July 19, 2010, the US Patent & Trademark Office published ten Apple patents suggesting that the next laptop will have a touchscreen. Of course, Apple is keeping the plan secret for now, and we won’t hear about it until the release. On the other hand, on September 1, Apple is holding an invite-only news media event, so it could happen even sooner than we think.
Touch technology is taking over mobile phones, showing up in new devices, and it will be making it’s way into computers. Actually, it kind of already has: Microsoft built that huge touchscreen coffee table computer several years ago. Our relationship with technology will grow increasingly intimate as touch technology becomes more widespread. What will it mean when you can touch your computer and send vibrations to another person’s computer? Or slide tweets around with your fingertips? You might even be able to write a memo while walking on a treadmill. On the other hand, maybe it’s a good idea to unplug, and go touch some real people. Our relationship with technology will become more natural, more human and more…touchable.
This all means that you are on the right track as a small business entreprenuer to be in tune with the world of social media. If you thought it was already exploding, just wait until some of these new technologies make the experience even that much more enticing!
image credit: dongtao
