From the BBC, Bill Gates tells us how it is.
“This whole idea of what I call natural user interface is really redefining the experience,” he said.
It’s fortunate we have visionaries such as Bill to tell us about these things. He calls it “natural user interface”. You heard it here.
“We’re adding the ability to touch and directly manipulate, we’re adding vision so the computer can see what you’re doing, we’re adding the pen, we’re adding speech,” he told BBC News.
It’ll see you, but it won’t judge.
During the interview Mr Gates showed off the Microsoft Surface computer, a large table like machine with a multi-touch interface.
“I’ll be brave, in five years we’ll have many tens of million of people sitting browsing their photos, browsing their music, organising their lives using this type of touch interface,” he said.
I’m not 100% sure they’ll be sitting at one of your Surface tables and organising their little lives but it’s definite that multi-touch-style interfaces will be prominent for some time.
Citing the success of the iPhone and the controller for the Nintendo Wii game console, Mr Gates said such interfaces were a big hit with consumers.
And it must absolutely make him gag that no-one can find anything nice to say about Vista.