The problem with "floating gestures" and the like is that they're even less tactile than touch screens, which I would argue is the biggest downside to touch interfaces. With the smartphone, the touch screen offered a ton of potential and flexibility, but I don't think the same can be said of "floating" gestures.

Floating gestures might have more success with Theremin-esque[0] audio feedback. Imagine an interface that hums when you put your hand near it, and also makes other interaction noises as you use it.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin

Now imagine a train or a plane packed full of people using Theremin-esque humming devices.

We're basically out of technology for the next innovation period. The truly "magical" next step is a direct neural interface, and we're an unknown number of years away from that.

Nothing else can improve on the hand-sized touch screen. The alternatives all come with serious compromises. Voice is too loud and public, portable floating holographic displays haven't been invented yet and may suffer from privacy issues, and there's not much else available.

In-eye projection is probably the most promising approach, but the product would have to be no heavier than existing glasses, and I can't imagine that being viable for five years at a minimum. A decade would be more realistic.

We might have LCDs with holographic resolution by then, so all kinds of interesting things might be possible. But for now, hand-sized touch screens are as good as it gets - and will be for quite a while.

Of course there's still a lot you can do with a small touch panel. There's huge scope to make software much, much better and smarter than it is today.

Imagine a train full of people with giant paper displays, flapping the paper, hearing crinkle and crumple each time they so much as flip a page! What a racket!

> Now imagine a train or a plane packed full of people using Theremin-esque humming devices.

Great opportunity for a jam session!

On the other hand the biggest downside to touch interfaces is that you're essentially always hiding what you're interacting with.

If I could have floating gestures in front of my desktop I'd be very happy. Scrolling a page by waving my hand while leaning back in my seat. I think someone made something like this with Kinect.

That's more or less what you can get with a Leap Motion. Some issues with tracking quality, but for gestures it works. It's a lot harder to make good screen interactions in mid air than one might think, so I'm not convinced it's all that great for normal desktop use (Having virtual hands in VR is cool though!).

It has been a while since I've used one and got to that opinion, and apparently software quality has gotten better. so if you are interested in this kind of thing it's maybe something to look into.

Guaranteed Gorilla Arm. You'll rapidly tire of that UI paradigm.

It's about choice.

Currently I lean back, cross my arms and hold a wireless mouse when I read long articles.

I just reached up and brushed back my hair. If this gesture also sent my screen scrolling, I'd be very sad.

You want a trackpad?

Yes, floating gestures are great and they do have potential but they don't solve the display problem.

Floating gestures are great if you're not living in a world where the vast majority of your motions have nothing to do with controlling the device.