What if the desktop on your computer was just like your actual desktop? That’s the core idea behind BumpTop, a really nice looking graphical overlay for Windows-based operating systems. But as cool as BumpTop looked, you still had to use your mouse and keyboard to manipulate it. As I made clear yesterday, I want those to die. So good news for me today: BumpTop is adding multi-touch support. And the result is awesome.
When we think of multi-touch right now, most of us think of the iPhone. But really, with such a small screen, there are only so many gestures you can do. Multi-touch BumpTop greatly expands that roster, and includes several gestures that it claims to have patents for. Basically, they have gestures that use all of you fingers, and both hands, and even the side of hands. You can “lasso” things, “shove” them, “scrunch” them, and “crop” them.
This graphic below shows a list of the gestures BumpTop offers that competitors don’t, including the ones that they apparently have patents on (labeled as “BT”).
Naturally, for these multi-touch capacities to work, you’ll need a computer with a touch screen surface that supports multi-touch. Right now, those aren’t widely available. But all indications are that soon enough, there could be a range of devices on the market with such capabilities (sadly, this is Windows 7-only — so no, it won’t work on an Apple Tablet). If you don’t have one of those however, BumpTop will continue to work on a majority of Windows-based PCs just fine with more traditional input devices.
The most obvious use of Mutli-touch BumpTop is with media, as you can easily manipulate images (watch the video below). But the service also works with documents (dragging them around, bunching them together, Google Gadgets, and even webpages as widgets. Also, there is social networking support, so if you edit an image in BumpTop, you can easily upload it immediately to Facebook or send it to Twitter.
I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking that as soon as I have a computer that can run this, I want this. If not, you’re crazy, just watch it in action below. And below that find more examples of its multi-touch gesture support.
Awesome Indeed
iPhone + Microsoft Surface = BumpTop
It’s a little bit more than that, my friend
Very nice.
Multi touch is the way things all need to go. Awesome work.
The way the term “desk” was used in Ender’s Game come to mind.
New Gesture
^
^^^^ You *
*(PP=Patent Pending)
I just patented a lasso using my middle finger. What a joke.
I have one of the HP multi-touch tablets. That might work quite well with this, although the tablet is just a bit too small and too heavy. Dell has a multi-touch as well, and Lenovo just announced theirs. So this is the right time for them to announce.
Off topic (sort of): Does anyone else gag when CNN uses their multitouch board for weather? It’s so unnecessary and over the top…
+1
Totally with you on that one.
As opposed to their “hologram” they used during the election?
Help me Wolf Blitzer, you’re my only hope…
Its a nice way to interface with a machine. The mouse will grow obsolete over time.
Am reminded of Shufflebored.
very creative and thought provoking but i’m not sure how this helps with the day to day usage of a computer. how often are we dragging, moving, scaling things except when editting multimedia?
Pretty cool, but petty at the end. Yes it takes 10 clicks to attach a picture to an email on a desktop… unless there is something built specifically to let me drag a file onto an icon that automates it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s cool.
arghhhhh im having a technology orgasm! this is so freaking awesome!!!
I don’t see any full-hand gestures above.
So – quick! – patent what you’re doing!
Could the Bumptop people please make add the option of not viewing things in a 3D room/desk environment but rather flat/overhead like a regular desktop?
I tried it out back when TC first posted on them. After 10 minutes, it was more annoying than anything.
I’d prefer a regular overhead view of a desktop that has a more subtle style of “3D” but with all the other features (stacking/organizing/tossing/multitouch/etc.).
We have an infinite desktop mode that turns it into an overhead view. You’ll find the “Infinite Desktop Mode” option under the Advanced tab in Settings.
We actually do have that feature, it’s called “infinite desktop mode” (somewhat confusingly named though). Unfortunately, it’s not as well tested as the regular 3D view since so many more people use the latter.
You don’t need a screen with Multi-touch. Look at Bamboo Fun Touch.
I plan to try this out.
I don’t like the idea of gestures being patented. Imagine if pressing a button was similarly protected. Besides being silly, this approach clearly limits innovation in the space of multi-touch computing. Please join me in dissent.
Agreed wholeheartedly.
Apple started it with the iPhone
+1 It’s totally ridiculous. Next thing, someone is going to have a patent for putting butter on bread. Maybe I should file a patent for having a key with the number one on it?
Microsoft made a patent for page-up/page-down buttons, so I guess you’re clear if you have what it takes to get in on the corrupt system
I love this!
Unfortunately there wasn’t anything on here that was compelling for anything but computers, something I spend time on only when I’m on vacations.
I want a multi-touch tool that does more than organize desktop icons and play with photos.
Mouse/Trackpad is still the easiest way to interact with a computer – regardless of how much all of us want Minority Report…
doh! should be “anything but photos” in the first sentence above.
I think the keyboard will be dead in 5 years.
Nah, keyboard feedback is a great thing, trying to type on a flat surface feels really, really weird (with any speed, anyway). I’d like to see some amazing advances in OCR and text-to-speech to make it less necessary to use a keyboard at all, but I don’t see it coming that quickly.
The mouse, on the other hand, with technologies like Natal and multitouch, might be well on it’s way out.
Who uses a desktop? I search.
I. Love. It.
Do you think mainstream consumers are going to start switching over to a multi-touch solution after they already purchased their PC? It seems to me like for this product to work, you’d need to convince large PC suppliers like HP and Dell to market BumpTop hardware and software to consumers at the time of their original purchase.
User Interface 101. Just awesome.
Would it work with a multitouch bamboo??
Eventually this technology will be everywhere! Feel that the brand name could have been given more consideration as it sounds like an item of clothing a pregnant woman wears!!
This made me lol. Nice one.
Very nice. Made me think of the “Roman room” technique for structuring thoughts as way to aid in remembering things.
thats the only time windows has looked cool.
Good thing we don’t sit around looking at all day, then
As soon as it goes further than the “desktop” I’m in, plus the whole Mac thing. I want to be able to physically move everything on my computer, not just the stuff on my desktop.
*Side Note, being able to to “go” to your co-workers desk and mess up all their stuff would be outstanding. Endless digital yet physical office pranks. I guess that would require a bumptop office, but hey, it would be sweet.
We hear you loud and clear about the Mac version. We’re working on it, and hope to have something to announce soon.
A couple of thoughts: If these truly are the way all user interfaces of the future will be manipulated, how do we then make them accessible to handicapped users with little to no dexterity.
Also, cool as it undoubtedly is, many of the truly practical features being shown here could just as easily be done with a mouse. Visually it looks great but I’m sceptical of the productivity improvements that are purported.
Patents anyone?
“Minority Report” interface, here we come.
While this is undeniably very cool, I wonder if it is really the absolute way of the future. In the same way that for many applications the keyboard is superior to a mouse, I can’t help but feel this has downsides. For instance:
- Gesturing on a small device that you’re not using all the time like the iPhone doesn’t require much effort. But if I’m constantly having to hold my arms out and make large gestures I can see myself returning to an input device where I can rest my hands on something and make very small gestures fairly quickly.
- Hands and even fingers are fairly large in comparison to a pointer. They block things. This is a problem I have with a good number of iPhone apps – I’m constantly having to check under my finger to see what’s going on. Even with a bigger screen, I can see that being an issue.
These seem like inherent issues with the tech – hope I’m proved wrong!
So, it’s innovative that you can drag a file to a usb drive? When was this video recorded? He also said that sending a picture by email takes only a couple taps and currently we have to click ten or so times… but both mac and windows have a right-click send as email option. This interface looks like the cheeze that was compiz a year ago – immature, gimmickey, and not useful. Please show us a list of files sorted by file size or last updated date.
Does not install correctly on all our XP PCs…
To be precise : refuses to launach on all our PCs…
the keyboard and mouse is gonna outlive the people here.
bumptop is awesome. multi-touch is useful for limited function devices. For real productivity, keyboard and mouse.
always cracks me up to read posts from these peeps who can’t differentiate the use of a tool and being a tool.
reminds me of this S&L skit:
http://www.hulu...fix-it?c=87:260
Are they seriously trying to patent gestures? Come on, ALL these have been used for years. Some of their “patented” gestures were on the Palm years ago. If you forego the stylus and use your finger, BAM!… same thing.
As a multi-touch developer, and one that aims to make truly useful and interesting applications, it’s nice to see this technology making it into the mainstream. However, this implementation is just tired and, IMO, useless. I guarantee anyone who buys this will have it uninstalled and be back on their mouse with days.
Multi-touch technology is great for media-related tools (music instruments, experimental work, etc), but trying to run your computer from it will burn up your fingers.
Multi-touch is a very cool concept but the keyboards and mouse fans might have more control over a computer and besides the screen can get to many fingerprints eventually
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I found this program to be extremely slow despite 2 G ram and the fastest chip.
Lasso Gesture = Patent?
I don’t think so, i made a WM2003 app which contained the same gesture, and the resulting action completed the same functionality.
This was done before the BumpTop domain even existed.
You think carpal tunnel syndrome is bad? Just wait ’till you get carpal shoulder!!!
I worked with an array of touch screens (Troll) back in the early nineties. In less than a month my shoulder was aching, from suspending my hand in front of the screens. I laughed outright when HP came out with the iMac-a-likes that have the touch screens, as it brought back such memories of pain that it was laugh or cry!
Fingers are remarkably fine tools. Arms are strong, but neither steady nor accurate. Multi-touch is great for the hand, impossible (in the long term) for the arm. When the desktop IS the desktop it’ll work, but as long as the screen is held vertically in front of you, the whole touch thing is, at best, only useful for broad strokes and simple selections.
Although it looks impressive, I think this demo doesn’t show actual tasks, it just shows a carefully prepared scenario.
For instance, when he views a picture there’s already a “Undo crop” button in view. And what about rotating a picture? (Yes, sometimes you want to do that *inside* a picture). There’s no “Undo rotate” button there. What if there are more than 16 files and folders on the USB stick? Now there’s 15 that fit quite neatly inside a 4×4 square.
I’m very glad stuff on my HD doesn’t show up as a pile and my desktop doesn’t look like some kind of dungeon from Saw IV.
bumptop is just a copy of this: http://www.perceptivepixel.com