Casual Connect 2013: The Power of Touch

by Jesse Schell, CEO, Schell Games

·         Abstract: This talk covers the history of touch games and where touch games are heading in the future.

·         Touch games have swept the world because kids understand touch games intuitively. Even animals can understand how to play a touch game.

·         Humans works with symbolic logic for 3000 years. The computer mouse tapped into the history of tool use which stretches back 3 million years. The history of touch dates back 300 million years. The realm of touching and receiving a response is the realm of the primal.

·         When technology combines philosophy, it’s destiny.

·         Touch is really complicated. There are millions of sensors, and we are only starting to understand itching and tickling. The conscious mind has difficulty understand its own touch. But it’s still very powerful. With Braille, people can absorb so many letters per second.

·         We are still learning touch interfaces on devices. Early touch screens fell victim to heavy arm syndrome, requiring people to hold out their arms for long periods of time.

·         The Nintendo DS, despite many negative feedback before release, became a mega-hit because it managed to do touch well. It did use a stylus and years later, the iOS devices revolutionized touch by using only the finger.

·         “Why would you use a stylus when God already gave you 10?” – Steve Jobs

·         However, there’s still magic in the stylus and the 3-finger grip, especially for artists.

·         School stopped teaching cursive handwriting and even proper typewriting. Now everyone develops sloppy hunt-and-peck typing techniques, which is okay since the current standard interface is the virtual keyboard.

·         We constantly innovative with interface with the Tactus (tactile touchscreen), Senseg (haptic interface), Oculus Rift (virtual reality), Aerial (compressed air feedback), airborne ultrasound, and Kinect (full-body camera vision).

·         Robots haven’t entered our household because we don’t have anything for them to do. The things they can do now like making our beds or brewing us coffee, we can easily do better ourselves. But they will eventually enter to provide us haptic feedback while we’re playing with the Oculus Rift and the Kinect.