As one of my increasingly favorite tech writers, Mary Jo Foley, at ZDNET points out, Microsoft's been long and hard at work at Codename "Milan," a multi-touch interface which is really starting to look like the evolution of the mouse and keyboard (Milan has a keyboard baked in) if Microsoft and Chris Pirillo ever get Windows Vista's speech recognition figured out. :)

There has been work on this technology since the 80's but that's not stopped Apple's from filing an arsenal of patents on the multi-touch technology, and the first fruit from their multi-touch technology will come in the form of their iPhone, with simple two finger picture zoom tech which is pretty neat, but present in all of the various multi-touch technologies. As a left-handed person, an avid geek, and a gadget aficionado, I'm wondering if R&D folks from any of these companies will finally get the left handed interface down.

The most blaring example of this is the scroll bar. Scroll bars are all on the right hand side. Any left handed people out there who are interested in trying to be productive while using a tablet PC or Pocket PC with a stylus should forget about it! You have to use your right hand finger for the scroll bar because if you use the stylus to scroll down your hand is in the way of everything you are trying to read while scrolling. I could and probably should go onto other flaws in interface design that could be worked around but I am short on time.  

I've complained to Microsoft about the (scrollbar + left handed + stylus = problem) problem since Pocket PC 2003 and even Windows Mobile 2006 doesn't have a "Move the Scroll bar to the left hand side" option.

Bootleg Windows Mobile 6 Screenshot

Something seemingly so simple to do, and yet Microsoft hasn't done anything to help us left-handed folks out... I've been doing a lot of research into the not so new multi-touch technology, and I am beginning to understand all of the complex math that goes into making some of these gestures work. This will make it more expensive to design the extra code for left handed usability and left handed people will most likely learn to use the technology as a right handed person. At first glance, it does seem like there would be an equal experience because you are using both hands, that's simply not true. The Nature of some gestures will favor the right hand and for instance, research shows that left handed folks excel at the QUERTY keyboard, and fall well behind in many English classes because it takes us a lot more effort to have good handwriting and we are not properly to write in our school systems. These same fundamental design flaws will probably present in multi-touch even though we'll end up with something better than the toolbar/stylus combo in today's systems.

If not for the keyboard, I don't think I would have done as well as I have for myself as I have so far, and I hope these companies start to realize that more and more people are being born left handed, a phenomenon that not completely explainable, not to mention that studies show that there is some positive correlation between left handed people and income and other attributes both positive and sometimes negative.

If anyone will nail multi-touch for left-handed people it has to be Apple. Having said that, they don't have any multi-touch products available on the market either. But I have a few clues which tell me they will be left handed friendly. First, Apple has the creative types, second they have a few pictures out there that give me hope. Their mini-Safari Browser doesn't appear to have any scroll bar, and if you go to www.apple.com/iPhone and then click on High Technology, and then Multi-touch, it shows a left hand. Woot! But still an iPhone is no computer and I can't even design any programs to run on the freaking thing.

        Apple iPhone Multi-touch (left hand using)               

                     Apple iPhone Safari Browser

With multi touch technology, table-top computing, and other great technology like this 3D air-mouse starting to get some attention I am hoping for the best, but I'm not holding my breath. Having said that, I've never used any multi-touch technology, (the closest thing to this type of technology that I've used, or is even commercially available is a Nintendo Wii), and even that is designed for right handed people.

3D Air Mouse (Source: Gizmag)        

Microsoft Table-top Computing            

Table Top Computer