Coder shows Firefox with multitouch Web apps
In this screenshot from Gomes' video, the programmer shrinks and enlarges icons using a multitouch interface for an application running within Firefox.
(Credit: Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)Multitouch interfaces are all the rage, for good reason, and a Mozilla programmer has been working to enable the technology for Web applications in the Firefox browser.
Firefox today can be controlled with multitouch gestures--a three-finger sweep up and down to go to the top or bottom of a Web page, for example, or two-finger pinch gestures to zoom out. But Felipe Gomes, a Brazilian computer science student who just finished a stint as a Mozilla intern, has demonstrated how Web-based applications, not just Firefox, can use multitouch.
His demonstration shows multitouch controls to shrink and enlarge icons, paint, select a region of a photo, and play Pong.
Multitouch interfaces, for example on the iPhone and Hewlett-Packard TouchSmart PCs, let the computer interpret the contact and motion of multiple fingers on the screen. And Apple MacBooks are equipped with multitouch trackpads.
One issue for multitouch, though, is standardizing the meaning of various gestures. Firefox and Safari on a Mac both move forward and backward in browsing history with three-finger sweeps right and left, respectively, but Safari doesn't follow Mozilla's example of three-finger sweeps up and down.
This issue gets even more complicated if Web applications get multitouch interfaces. What touch actions are controlling Firefox or the Web application? Or, for that matter, the operating system? The same two-finger gesture that draws a selection box to crop a photo in a Web app could also be a Firefox multitouch command to zoom in or out on the Web page.
Before we get to the conflicts and issues of interface standardization, though, we need more computers and applications that can take advantage of multitouch. Even I, who has yet to find a rival for keyboard controls when it comes to speed for most operations, am a fan of multitouch. So I look forward to seeing its potential realized even if that means a bit of chaos in the meantime.
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank. 
Gesture control on a Mac is set at the OS level just as mouse buttons are, not in the browser. The three-finger up and down sweeps are reserved by the system; by default, I believe they're used for invoking Expose and Dashboard. Does Firefox on the Mac override this? That sure will lead to user confusion.
It should be done at the OS level with an option for application override. People who know nothing about browser touch control can avoid the confusion, and those that do know about it can just hit a switch to override the system.
Eventually, there will be universally excepted gestures, getting everyone to agree on a standard library will be difficult at best, especially since Apple has already patented an extensive multi-touch gesture dictionary/library.
In short it's a firefox extention that allows you to use multi-touch events in a webpage.
It's pretty doubtfull though that everyone will just follow Apple in this...
- by shArkb0y September 22, 2009 6:50 AM PDT
- This is great. I have a 24inch HP touch smart all in one. Ouside of the app shipped with the product you only had limited support in Windows and Office. Looking forward to this and the touch screen enhanments in Windows 7.
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