[jerrya]

Jeff Atwood writes, The screen bounces when you touch it and for me this just brings up all the reasons I don't want a touchscreen except on a tablet. There is gorilla arms, screen bounces, and screen smudges. Jeez, I hate when people touch my screens.

But I am wondering if a reasonable or even better solution is an appropriate touchpad or even Android or iPad touchpad app.

Right now there are two (maybe three) touchpads quasi made for Windows 8 that I would like to try.

* The Logitech Wireless Rechargeable Touchpad T650 -- a huge touchpad with Windows 8 gesture support

* Splashtop Win8 Metro Testbed for Android and iPad

* Unified Remote for Android and Windows Phones

I haven't used Windows 8 more than three minutes, and I haven't used these alternatives to a touchscreen monitor, but I like the idea of having a 4" to 7" phone or tablet screen that mirrors the Windows 8 screen but lets me keep my finger flat on the table, pointing to a smaller screen now in remote touchscreen mode and able to get feedback to where my finger is either by seeing a "mouse pointer" move on the screen, or just by looking at the phone or tablet my finger is on and seeing the screen there.

[mkl]

There is gorilla arms, screen bounces, and screen smudges.

These things keep being repeated as if they're showstoppers, and it seems usually by people without any experience in the matter. I have been using a laptop purely by touch screen for 1-8+ hours a day for two years, and here's my experience:

- Gorilla arm simply doesn't exist. I use the laptop in a variety of setups and haven't had any problems. Yes, if your desktop PC suddenly accepted touch you'd probably want the screen much closer, likewise some laptop users with good eyesight (which I don't have - relevant since it makes me close already).

- Screen bounces do exist, but I haven't noticed them since a week or two in. I usually use the laptop with the screen up and facing backward (I don't use the keyboard), so I definitely get them. The Surface form factor does seem better for touch in a laptop, but I haven't tried it yet.

- Smudges do exist, especially if you use an on-screen keyboard so they accumulate, but in most indoor lighting they are not a problem at all. Then again, they don't bother me on my desktop screen either - if I'm looking at the screen content I don't see them.

I'm excited to see what possibilities Leap Motion provides, but at this point I think it's unlikely I'll buy a non-touch screen again. In the meantime, I'd quite like something like your last idea, and have thought about making a program to do it.

[flyinRyan]

>- Gorilla arm simply doesn't exist.

That's a pretty strong statement for an anecdote of precisely one person.

[mkl]

As I said, this is purely my direct experience. Based on it, I hypothesise that the idea of gorilla arm arose from people using touch screens as if they were regular screens, i.e. inappropriately. I have certainly never heard of gorilla arm from iPads/Android tablets.

[ChuckMcM]

Interesting take on it. One of the setups I use has a Mimo touch monitor [1] which is attached via USB. Putting the tool bar for my CAD program on that monitor sized up, gives me a screen with all of the tools available, and I can use the entire space on my 'main' screen for drawing. My version isn't multi-touch which would be useful for doing view projections.

I realized that sort of the 'ideal' setup here is a keyboard, and then behind the keyboard a really wide and not too tall multi-touch display, and then vertically in front of me 1, 2, or 3 IPS high density displays. That would move the richer expression of touch gestures to a place that was halfway between my keyboard and my screens.

Like Jeff that opened me up to the notion of a 'hybrid' interaction model. Prior to that experience with the 'all-in-one' style machines was just frustrating. The conflict between wanting the large monitor set back, and then having to reach out and touch it was a challenge.

Amazingly far from 25 x 80 characters on a green (or amber) screen :-)

[1] http://www.mimomonitors.com/

[jerrya]

Yes, if I understand what you are saying and what mimo is selling, that would seem to be what I want.

The mimo site is a bit too timecube for me to quickly parse -- it is a very expensive touchpad at $329.99 but perhaps there is something similar for less. :)

But yes, I really don't want people touching my expensive, clean screens, I don't want my finger to obscure the detail of what I am drawing, and I don't want to swing my arms through six feet of three 24" monitors.

[stephengillie]

One option might be connecting the tablet to an external display and mirroring the screen on both, like a presentation mode. You could control the tablet directly while looking at the external monitor.