PhIxDA Automagically

For about 3 years now i have been fascinated by multitouch technology and its use in our everyday lives. This type of interactivity seems extremely user friendly and natural, since everything else in life seems to have multitouch built in. The idea behind most multitouch display systems currently seems to be focused on the use of everyday systems. Navigation elements, Automatic Teller Machines and even the ability to order a sandwich from a gas station just the way you want. So with this basic idea and understanding of multitouch, how does one begin to program for multitouch? What language or software do we use as designers? Do we focus on current Gesture Libraries or make our own?

Now because I am the way that I am, my natural inclination is to see what the multitouch capabilities of ActionScript are. I stumbled upon this earlier today, Working Flash applications with multi-touch, and I must admit I did not know about any of this. I know there have been a lot of experiments using Flash along with Nintendo’s Wii remote as a means of user input but did not know that you could develop applications like these.

So I propose a contest of sorts. Lets build a multitouch display, there seems to be plenty of tutorials for this type of project out there.(this seems to be the best one so far) Once that is accomplished we should each pick a topic or application we want to build for the multitouch display. The prize is the knowledge you gain during your work. We should however try to establish some rules like do we use an existing gesture library or make our own, should the work we create in b in the interest of the public good etc.

In the end though it will be extremely interesting in my opinion to see the uses and abuses of this type of technology and interaction over the next 6 years. One thing I will be sure to follow is how designers and developers open their minds from they were originally taught to this new medium and way of solving complex interactive problems.