Comment by jodrellblank
11 years ago
Technology does exist that can interpret a much wider range of symbols drawn with a stylus or other pointing device as an alternative means of input, but usually as a niche tool.
Handwriting math equations is built into Windows 7 and 8. Over half a billion computers potentially have access to it.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/use-math-input-p...
That’s a great example of what I mean. The intent is laudable. For now, the tool is far too limited/flawed for professional work, but one day maybe our input/output devices will be kinder to this kind of interaction and our software will routinely support alternative forms of input to work with data that isn’t purely textual.
I think a more polished example that is available today is the use of stylus and graphics tablet with drawing software. That is a relatively mature field where the use of alternative input methods to keyboard+mouse is well established, and skilled users already do some amazing things.