TouchTools could revolutionize how we use touchscreens

It goes without saying that us humans have been particularly good with our tools, otherwise how could we have lasted against far larger and fiercer animals over the thousands of years in the past? Having said that, the use of tools in this day and age have also expanded, especially in the realm of touchscreen devices. There are times when the leap in technology would require us to learn of new gestures, but what if existing methods of tool handling in the real world can be applied in a digital interface?

Humans have always been good with tools. We know how to use a variety of things like tape measures, erasers, pens, cameras and magnifying glasses to make our tasks easier and more efficient. But when it comes to using modern technology, those real-world actions that we’re familiar with are much different on touchscreens, and it’s annoying. In order to interact with a touchscreen, we have to learn new gestures, and sometimes we even need an extra menu of virtual tools to mimic what tools do in the real world. So what if we could take what we already know from handling tools in the real world and apply it to digital interfaces? This is exactly what Chris Harrison of Carnegie Mellon University suggests. TouchTools is a new form of touchscreen interface that takes gestures we already know in the real world and applies them to the digital world.