When do we get to see the gestures, haptive O/S UI hitting mainstream?

[gaidensensei]

I'm sure some of the older folks here recall the impact of the prospective computer technology during the 2002 release of the Minority Report movie, and then later we saw further improvements being shown in Quantum of Solace, Iron Man, and so on.

I remember discussions about the technology razed the 2003-2008 period, Ooblong, g-speak and John Underkoffler, Jeff Han, then the whole thing with Johnny Lee and the Wii, Kinect and so on.

But where is it for the mainstream computing? Why does it seem that there is not much direction? It's been 3-4 years since the last time these topics raged on, but I still don't see any direction in this on the computer world other than smartphones and ipads.

What are your inputs?

Edit: I think this was the best category for this type of discussion, but I'm not sure where else it can go that would generate more suitable replies. If a mod sees a better area, go for it!

 

[ViRGE]

The short answer is this: when you solve the gorilla arm problem.

All of those examples were basically vertically mounted systems that required their users to hold their arms up. All the examples of working touchscreen systems for prolonged use are small devices where users still keep their arms fairly low.

 

[Cerb]

What are your inputs?

They should never become mainstream. Gesture UIs are evil, and are only acceptable in some cases due to limited physical space, or, in the case of gaming, a desire to remove the couch potato aspect of typical video games. For general purpose computing, once you reach the size of a netbook, they should DIAF.