The ‘Touch’ vs. ‘Tactile’ Debate For Computers & Mobile Handsets

There is a lot of discussion out there about how the ‘Touch’ display keypads are going to increasingly take over from the conventional ‘Tactile’ ones. The rise of iPhone, iPad and other Tablets, Touch Smart Phones are making touch interfaces more and more prominent.

In fact some people have already started writing the obituaries of the good old fashioned tactile keyboard. But not so fast.

I for one cannot just figure out how a touch keyboard can replicate the tactile feedback of contact keys. Or the contoured feel of a mobile handset’s QWERTY keypad.

Touch is fine when you have to type a little, and when you are largely just reading/interacting – but definitely not ideal for writing documents, emails and blog posts like this one. And let us look at some other areas as well. Can you imagine a pianist playing on a touch pad piano? Maybe a ‘Tabla’ (a popular Indian percussion instrument, that has a reasonably flat surface.

Some of my friends who are big cheerleaders of ‘Touch’ (and think that I may be stuck in the stone age…) talk about how swipe, page turn and other gestures are improving interactivity and productivity. But to me they are just better replacements of the nearly 40 year old ‘Mouse’. I agree – the Mouse needs a replacement and a touch pad is a presents a very good improvement. But just cannot see a touch pad being used for heavy duty typing!

Wonder what you think?

Why Doctors Hate Electronic Medical Records (EMRs)

Having studied the Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) space for a few years now, it’s clear to me that EMR adoption is a huge challenge. Even in developed markets like the US, successful implementation rates are pretty low (especially in small clinics). In spite of a huge Federal Government Incentive Program, the progress is gradual (at best).

In India the picture is a lot worse. My assessment is that EMR adoption here is in low single digits.

There are many theories and observations about why doctors dislike Electronic Medical Records (EMRs). One often discussed observation is that doctors are ‘technophobes’. I personally don’t think that’s true. On the contrary many doctors, whether in US or in India are ‘gadget freaks’ (when it comes to devices like new smartphones, laptops, cameras, etc.).

The primary issue is that of software usability. Many traditional EMR systems are quite complicated and difficult to use. These systems at times resemble heavy duty ERPs (Enterprise Resource Planning IT Systems) that run the operations of large multi-million dollar corporations.  A small clinic doesn’t need all this complexity. These EMRs may actually end up hurting the efficiency of a clinic, rather than improve it. Also many of these systems do not enable interactions with patients for chronic disease management, e-consultation, telemedicine, etc.  Doctors are looking for simple systems that can improve their productivity, as well as support better patient care. In absence of these, they are perfectly ok going back to their old paper notes based methods.

I recently came across an excellent article in ‘The Journal of Surgical Radiology’ by Shahid Shah, “Column: Why MDs Dread EMRs”. The author has done a great job of summarizing the major reasons that are hurdles to effective adoption. I encourage the readers to go through this article for a detailed insight into the real issues.

Musings on an eBook Reader and Tablet PC Combination

I had originally blogged about this topic about 6 months back. See original post “Musings on the next tech killer app – A combined tablet and ebook reader device“. Also attached below.

After Apple’s much anticipated iPad announcement today, I thought I will revisit this topic once again. I think the LCD display in the Apple iPad would still have certain limitations as compared to the epaper technology display in the Amazon Kindle. The readability and feel of the iPad screen may not be like that of a paper book. It remains to be seen how much ‘real life’ the iPad LCD screen actually feels like.

In terms of creating a ‘hybrid solution’ like the one I had described in the earlier post, the Barnes & Nobles Nook comes a little closer. In the sense that they are using the epaper technology for the display screen and a small touch sensitive multi-color LCD display for the interactive features. Though I wonder that in the midst of Apple and Amazon, does Barnes & Nobles have a chance?  It remains to be seen what approach Microsoft takes in its own Tablet PC (no details/dates as yet).

Going forward, I wonder how the epaper/LCD screen gap would get bridged? Lot of research work is going on in the epaper technology area. Future epaper displays could feature full color support and some level of touch sensitive surfaces. Till that time though, a simple hybrid may not be a bad solution?

What are your thoughts?

——————————————————————————-

Original Post, Dated: July 28, 2009

Musings on the next tech killer app – A combined tablet and ebook reader device

I have followed the news around Amazon’s Kindle with great interest. I think it will be a tech game-changer. It fundamentally tries to address the readability issues associated with the LCD screens in other devices. Though, I haven’t had a chance to use it as yet, I can imagine how the epaper display technology can produce images and text that is very close to printed paper. In my view, this capability alone will lead to a large scale adoption of this device in the coming years.

I also see a huge opportunity in a ‘next gen’ Tablet PC. I haven’t digged deep into reasons why the existing Windows based Tablet PCs haven’t been that successful over the past few decade. Is it the cost? Or usability? Or both?

There is a lot of discussion in the media around Apple launching a new Tablet – I am sure this will be a game changing device, given Apple’s innovation track record. My initial thought when I first read about it was – here’s comes a potential Kindle killer. But then I realized that the Kindle’s display will be a major advantage over the tradional LCD display.

A tablet’s LCD display is critical for many functions (graphics, media, interactive software and tools, etc.), and doubt if there’s a substitute.

My simple thought: Why can’t someone create a smart, usable tablet computer with an epaper display on the back side??

Such a device could provide you with both capabilities in one single device! You can read a book and then if you want to use your tablet, just flip the device around! Isn’t it as simple as adding an epaper like display onto a tablet device??

As a user, I for one would definitely queue up to buy such a device, at a premium!

Musings on the next tech killer app – A combined tablet and ebook reader device

I have followed the news around Amazon’s Kindle with great interest. I think it will be a tech game-changer. It fundamentally tries to address the readability issues associated with the LCD screens in other devices. Though, I haven’t had a chance to use it as yet, I can imagine how the epaper display technology can produce images and text that is very close to printed paper. In my view, this capability alone will lead to a large scale adoption of this device in the coming years.

I also see a huge opportunity in a ’next gen’ Tablet PC. I haven’t digged deep into reasons why the existing Windows based Tablet PCs haven’t been that successful over the past few decade. Is it the cost? Or usability? Or both?

There is a lot of discussion in the media around Apple launching a new Tablet – I am sure this will be a game changing device, given Apple’s innovation track record. My initial thought when I first read about it was – here’s comes a potential Kindle killer. But then I realized that the Kindle’s display will be a major advantage over the tradional LCD display.

A tablet’s LCD display is critical for many functions (graphics, media, interactive software and tools, etc.), and doubt if there’s a substitute.

My simple thought: Why can’t someone create a smart, usable tablet computer with an epaper display on the back side??

Such a device could provide you with both capabilities in one single device! You can read a book and then if you want to use your tablet, just flip the device around! Isn’t it as simple as adding an epaper like display onto a tablet device??

As a user, I for one would definitely queue up to buy such a device, at a premium!

Optimization In Real World

We recently featured a multi-part series on PuneTech (an online tech community that I am actively involved in) regarding “Optimization in real world”. The primary aim of this series was to explain the esoteric world of ‘Optimization’ in simple layman terms. I am including a set of links for these articles below.

Note that in the past, PuneTech has also published some introductory articles on Supply Chain Management (SCM) and the optimization & decision support challenges involved in various real world SCM problems.

It was an honor to have Dr. Narayan Venkatasubramanyan, an Optimization Guru and one of the original pioneers in applying Optimization to Supply Chain Management, as a contributor for PuneTech. Who better to write about ‘Optimization in the real world’ than Narayan! I had the privilege of working closely with Narayan at i2 Technologies in Dallas for nearly 10 years.

Here are the links to the 4 articles:

Optimization: A case study

Architecture of a decision-support system

Optimization and Organizational Readiness for Change

Optimization: A technical overview

I have also included a brief excerpt from Narayan’s first article, giving some background about this series:

“the following entry was prompted by a request for an article on the topic of “optimization” for publication in punetech.com, a website co-founded by amit paranjape, a friend and former colleague. for reasons that may have something to do with the fact that i’ve made a living for a couple of decades as a practitioner of that dark art known as optimization, he felt that i was best qualified to write about the subject for an audience that was technically savvy but not necessarily aware of the application of optimization. it took me a while to overcome my initial reluctance: is there really an audience for this after all, even my daughter feigns disgust every time i bring up the topic of what i do. after some thought, i accepted the challenge as long as i could take a slightly unusual approach to a “technical” topic: i decided to personalize it by rooting in a personal-professional experience. i could then branch off into a variety of different aspects of that experience, some technical, some not so much. read on ….”

Subscribe to Amit Paranjape’s Weblog by Email