TouchTools could revolutionize how we use touchscreens

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.