Touch Screen Software

A lot of people may think that the concept of touch screen devices and touch screen software is fairly new, and from a general consumer standpoint they would be correct. However, the technology has been around a long long time. In fact, the first touch screen was developed way back in the 1970's (yes that's right, almost 40 years ago!), and has been used by some industrial sectors ever since. As a matter of fact, there are not many people out there who haven't used these devices at one time or another. Touch screens can be found in airports around the world, as well as being used in malls for map displays and in information centres as kiosks. All of these devices run using touch screen software, and more recently can be found in supermarket self serve checkouts. Love them or hate them, touch screens have been around a long time, and they are here to stay.

Not only are they here to stay, but they have finally started evolving into something useful to the end user. Nowadays, most decent phones have touch screen capability built into them. The newest iPhones are astounding me with their use of touch screen technology. There are games, map applications, photo imaging and all sorts of other wonderful touch screen software on offer with these devices. Another example is the Nintendo DS. I got my kid one of these things a couple of years ago and she loves it. A lot of people don't equate gaming platforms like this with touch screen technology, because you are not directly touching the screen with your fingers. Usually you will use a "stylus" or a small pen to interact with these devices. This doesn't change the fact that they do indeed use touch screen technology, and each game is an example of touch screen software.

One of the biggest new developments in the touch screen industry is the option of the "multi touch" screen. No longer are you limited to using one finger to click a button or point and drag. Now you can place two fingers on the screen and move, shuffle, stretch, shrink and zoom to your hearts delight. This improvement has spawned many ideas from touch screen software developers, the implications are astounding and many are still trying to get a handle on what can be done with this type of technology. Have you seen the movie The Minority Report? Remember those scenes where Tom Cruise is standing in front of a large wall of a computer screen and is skimming through images using nothing but his hands? Well, that technology is now a reality, and all it's going to take is touch screen software developers to create the applications that can utilise these advancements.

Touch Screen Software on the Desktop?

The desktop computer has fallen behind the eight ball as far as touch screen development is concerned. Sure, it's now second nature for us to point and drag all over our iPhones, but our computer just looks at us strangely when when do that to our monitor. That said, Microsoft is claiming that this will all change with their new operating system - Windows 7. They are promising not only touch screen capability, but multi touch screen capability, which could potentially turn the desktop computing world upside down. Of course, whatever Microsoft does, Apple is going to do (or visa versa, depending on what side of the fence you sit on), and ultimately this is all going to lead to a better computing experience for all of us end users.

It will also open up a whole new pile of options for software developers. If you have a handle on software development, now is the time to be honing up on your touch screen software programming skills, because this industry is about to take off big time, and as we all know in the technology industry, the first person who gets their foot through the door is the one who is going to make the big bucks. I personally am looking forward to all this new touch screen software that's going to be available to us. I have always been a sucker for new technology, and I'm sure I'll get sucked right in to all the hype.

Even software not directly related to touch screens will be affected. As with any emergence of a new technology, there are nasty people out there trying to find ways to hack and break. The best internet security companies will already be designing ways of locking down this technology for the desktop

Across the board, whether you love playing computer games, you enjoy using Google Maps, you are a graphics designer or a digital photographer, all of these niches are going to be affected by these developing technologies. So if your squeamish about touching your computer, you better get over it, because soon your mouse will be obsolete and you'll be letting your fingers do the walking.