Touched by a Computer
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Okay, right to the point.
There [was] much anticipation building up about the new Watch expected to be released [a month or so later]. We’ve all seen the demo at the reveal last year. Those of us paying attention got only some of the concepts and features from watching the presentation. Over time a lot of other details have emerged. People who report these things in the Tech Press are obligated to attend to technical specifications, front facing screen, the wheel, and the fashion statement the watch design will make for a consuming public. All of this is fine when you want to compare it to other ‘wearable’ devices.
I’d like to take you to another dimension at this point.
Consider, for a moment, how much changed when Apple brought forward a Touch-enabled interface for their phone. Later this was expanded to include gestural and multi-touch capabilities, which made using the iPad very interesting. Where before we needed to acquire the skills necessary to stare in one direction while our hand operated a mousing device, this new multi-touch interface allowed direct control and direct contact with the display of data. Until then the constant mode-switching between data input by keyboard and navigation and command by mouse was only occasionally interrupted by using a stylus on a digitizing panel. As advanced as it was for the time the mouse was no longer the only way to interact with our computer(s). Command lines still waited to be relevant.
Taken together these two developments (mouse and touch) meant the use of a computer became commonplace.
Today computers have such a small form they are carried around, remain constantly connected, and allow us to respond much quicker than ever to everyday situations at work or at home. Touching the screen means not needing a table or mouse-pad. It means a keyboard can vanish, only to appear when needed. It also means the user can manipulate and control the device directly. Because of Touch many advances were made in user design which introduced swiping, pinching, and flicking motions to substitute for previous mouse commands.
How this relates to the proposed Watch becomes clear when you know only a couple of things about the functionality of such a device. First of all the Watch is not really a watch at all. That’s easy to recognize. It will give you the time just as your phone still can make calls. But what a wrist device offers is much more than just a clever display within arm’s reach. Second the Watch contains circuitry to handle what Apple is calling “Taptic” feedback. This is much more than just a vibration on your phone.
I am proposing, here, how this single feature of the device will become it’s most important distinguishing factor. This single capability will change the way we interact with all our computer(s). Now the computer can touch us. Up to this point no other design or device for wearing on your wrist offered a haptic (taptic) response. Other devices can all; make a noise, flash a screen, light up with the raise of an arm, and even vibrate to get your attention. But none of these other devices have a way for the computer to communicate with you through touch.
At the demonstration last year there was some playing around with a feature in which two people with the same Watches could communicate between themselves by tapping or scribbling on the screen. This has potential for ridicule and humorous commentary as it appears to be just another digital “parlour trick” to sell the device. But it actually foreshadows (for me) hundreds of ways this kind of “feedback” could develop into direct communication through properly encoded, and personally structured, messaging.
Those who already own a modern iPhone might know it can allow the owner to “record” their own vibration patterns and use them to indicate the kind of notification being “buzzed” to your pocket. People had a little fun with this in the beginning. They could have a special buzz for their mother’s call or their girlfriend’s text. It was a fairly personal way to customize the notification experience. Now imagine having a large glossary of ‘taptic’ responses which could be assigned for notifications, but also could be used in conjunction with other Watches to communicate directly, privately, even intimately. This is the key to what I am suggesting.
What if I was able to use specially formulated, high frequency, vibrations to fool your skin into believing it was wet, or licked by a cat’s tongue, or softly kissed, or being gently blown on by a person? These would be fairly advanced (even “animated”) taptic responses which would be the new “Ringtones” of the wearable era. People could just download touches made by others or they could invest some time to make up a glossary of their very own. Partners could agree on specific “touches” which would become a shorthand between them. Married couples already use a kind of shorthand between each other, resulting from their extensive familiarity. Friends and teens would ‘share’ new touches between them. It would develop into a small economy of intimate, and deeply personal, codes and touches among groups of people.
At present the utility of this “touch” feedback seems pretty limited. But I believe the Watch will not only know a lot about the person but would then be able to have ways of “touching” them to either get their attention or to direct them toward specialized information. The other part of the demo suggested some street map navigation through taps on a person’s wrist suggesting turns or stops to guide them around without having to look at maps all the time. Just as a guide-dog harness is designed to allow the dog to communicate fairly complicated information to the person holding the handle, a wearable could be programmed to let them know things in advance which are more sophisticated than just notifications regarding other computer functions. It might be possible to provide contextual cues about any number of situations. It might also summon colleagues, allow for discreet messaging, and for uninterrupted monitoring. The Watch clearly is built with many sensors allowing the device to “know” a lot about the person wearing it. The antennae inside will “know” a lot about their electromagnetic environment. It would be an invisible thread connecting a number of friends together in a constant exchange of contextual information from which any member could initiate a “touch” which the others would receive. Reaching out to touch someone (as in old telephone advertising) could be possible across convention halls or continents.
I can imagine a whole new vocabulary of “touch-related” signals and codes and taptic design responses which might emerge from the shared use of this feature. Some might leave strong impressions with people. They might contain a great deal of emotional information from the way the watch touches. We all know the current senses for engaging a computer are sight and sound. Lately we have started touching our computers, carrying them, cradling them, and elegantly caressing their glass. We stare into that reflection like Narcissus at the water’s edge. But one day very soon our reflection will reach out and touch us back. This will intensify the deep personal relationships we have formed with our devices. But it will also allow for the transmission of a “touch” across great distances to comfort others or reassure ourselves. The response the brain will have to being touched back will move Watch owners onto a new plane of interactions. It will be quite compelling to have the sensation of your dog licking your wrist to remind you that it’s time to fill their dish. It will be a strange new thing to come to terms with when your significant other can ‘tickle’ your wrist any time they like.
When this is combined with authentication through a Touch ID enabled phone there are new shores to explore. I believe the potential is there to be realized. The taptic feedback feature of the new Watch will be under the radar, so to speak, while everyone responds to the design and styling and the fashion statement it makes. Competitors to the Watch will likely focus more on getting performance and features to outshine the Apple device. But once the experience of being touched by your watch catches on there will be a whole new aspect of interacting with your digital lifestyle which will take over from the everyday fashion focus.
The Watch will have very little to do with telling time. It will have more to do with touching people than any other experience people will have with them. Where else has anyone designed devices to encourage people to touch each other — virtually speaking?
Image courtesy of Academic Technology at the College of Willian & Mary.
http://at.blogs.wm.edu/touch-and-the-computer-interface/
