The ART of the TABLET GESTURE

I just can't wait for the day that I am strapped ultra fast into my sports tourer, and driving with a dashboard of touch screens in front of me.  I like to use both hands sometimes, but lets assume I can drive with one hand. No ! - one finger using the latest Touch technology of gestures.  No steering wheel or foot pedals, just a touch screen. Bit frightening perhaps... but definitely possible.


Now pointing, clicking ... scrolling, now wiping gestures are the order of the day.  Tablets with their ultrasensitve touch screens and immediate graphic feedback, give the user an ability to make other gestures in lieu of writing or pressing buttons or twisting dials.

The specialists and artisans we are, we love to use our hands to make delicate changes in control and set points for control.

So.. lets talk about some of the latest features of touch gesture technology, and how that might be used in control systems graphics going forward.

In this respect, I am going to go through the gesture technology offered and compatible with Microsoft Windows 7.  Further information on Gestures is available from MSDN Windows Gesture Overview. I have gratefully borrowed screen shots of the Microsoft gestures referred to by the link.

Lets quickly review the gestures supported so far.  I say so far, because I really think these are going to have to expand as time moves forward...

 Tap / Double Tap {Mouse Click}

• Straightforward translation of point and click concept - watch out for inadvertent pointing and clicking when explaining things to people using the touch screen while driving.

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Panning with Inertia

Panning with Inertia

• Similar to the use of the windows scroll wheel

This gesture would be good for controlled reading of lists.  In SCADA systems there are many scrollable lists, such as:-

• OFF-NORMAL
• TAG
• ALARM
• EVENT
• SEQUENCE of EVENT
• MODIFIER

The typical action is to select the list, rapidly scroll through by inspection and then select the list item for further navigation or action.

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Selection / Drag

Selection/Drag

• Similar to click/drag

This function is not commonly used in graphical control interfaces, other than for screen grabs or data grabs from pre-formatted tables or graphic displays.

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Press and Tap

Press and Tap

• Similar to right-click

This function is generally used for context sensitive menus related to the selected item. Used extensively in online object oriented configuration and engineering of object data.  Functional methods and attributes of specific objects can rapidly be accessed using this gesture.

Personally, I find this a bit tricky, two fingers on the same hand, but I am sure it could work with some practice.

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Zoom

ZOOM

• In the past ZOOM used to be combined with PAN, particularly for handling large format utility schematic displays.  It also used to be associated with De-Cluttering.  In this respect, many older graphics were designed with different layers of information which could be pulled in or out of context depending on the zoom level.
• With the gesture, ZOOM becomes a little more intuitive and definitely much faster.

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Rotate

ROTATE

• Probably for the past 20 years or more, control schemes have been very strongly associated with the normal Cartesian coordinates.  Control actions had normally been associated with raise lower, left-right.
• With the gesture, ROTATE will allow control to once again be associated with CLOCKWISE / ANTI-CLOCKWISE.  This should allow a tighter association with VALVE or SCREW movements on a graphic screen.
• As with driving, the physical tie with the fingertips or hands means that continuous circular motion may be difficult to maintain.

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Two Finger Tap

TWO FINGER TAP

• Application Defined Gesture.
• With this gesture, I believe it may be a useful gesture for very rapid start/termination of a process.  It is not defined, but definitely could be easily mistaken for a "PRESS and TAP" gesture.

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Press and Hold

PRESS and HOLD

• [defined as right-click]
• With this gesture, I believe it could be very useful for start or stop confirmation.
• The act of pressing and holding implies a definite decision, and the blue ring type animation could be used for visual feedback of the start/stop decision making.

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Flicks

FLICKS

• [PAN]
• Flicks are the most useful and rapid gesture for shifting the virtual viewing pane on the touch screen.
• The speed of the flick could easily be interpreted
• The flick action combined with the ZOOM action, could result in rapid navigation of large scale SCADA graphics.
• For pop-up dialog information, FLICKs may provide an easy way to close or dismiss the dialog, other than using the CLOSE button.

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As you can see, this post is a quick introduction to the ART of the GESTURE, and where we stand using standard Windows 7 technology.  I am pleased to see that there is a good correspondence with most of the gestures listed above, with classic point and click functionality. This in turn will enable "continuously current" support of classic graphics screens used in control systems, alongside their more advanced developments designed to take full advantage of the new Touch Screen Technology.

I am not sure I will be driving a gesture controlled car any time soon, but equally I am sure that gesture based functionality is going to move into static control rooms in the next wave of control systems operational management. The adoption of gesture based control system graphics and wireless technology allows that same control to move out of the control room and de-centralize the work, particularly decision making work, to other locations in the control domain.

Other Reading on Related topic on Maryanne Steidinger's blog : 6 Must haves for Mobile....