If you’re not a fan of touchscreens, I have some bad news for you… They aren’t going to go away anytime soon. In fact, they’re going to become more and more ubiquitous as they become more advanced.
Two of the next big ideas in touchscreen technology are aimed at making them even more interactive-friendly.
Smarter Touchscreens
Currently, touchscreens are smart enough know when something is touching it. They can distinguish between quick taps, swipes, and long presses. Each action affording another degree of control and interactivity to users. What they can’t do is distinguish what part of your finger or hand is touching the screen. The next steps in touchscreen control are to make screens more intelligent. There are differences in your knuckle and your fingernail touching the screen, and in the future, touchscreens will be able to discern the difference and users will have more ways to control apps and interact with their devices. The way of the keyboard will likely continue to decline as our touchscreen devices become more sophisticated and take over tasks formerly left to physical keys and buttons.
Self-Sanitizing Screens
If you constantly worry about the germs accumulating on your touchscreen device(s) as you and who knows who else use it, this one is for you. Microsoft is seeking to patent a touchscreen that kills germs on it’s own. The idea is that touchscreen devices, much like TV remotes, are filthy with germs because of their heavy use. To combat any reservations about using a touchscreen device because of germs, Microsoft is aiming to produce touchscreens in the future that will include an ultraviolet LED backlight. The light from the UV backlight would kill bacteria on the surface of the screen and could very well keep you from catching the latest bug going around. Well… they could prevent you from catching something from a touchscreen device anyway. For touch devices that are shared or public, like interactive info screens or flat panel displays that have touchscreen capabilities, this technology holds particular significance, since they are the most likely culprits of spreading germs.
Conclusion
Advances like the ones above mean that touchscreens are not going away. They’re here to stay. And they’re only going to get better and better until something more advanced comes along and makes them obsolete as well. For instruction, this means that we can plan on interactivity becoming a bigger expectation in the classroom. Our students are going to be using interactive technology more as it matures and becomes more prevalent. We have to adapt as educators. Not just in our thinking, to find ways to incorporate interactivity, but also in learning how to use the new devices and features that advances in technology bring our way.
How prepared and flexible are you to adapt and embrace these advances in technology?
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