Ask HN: Do you want to touch the screen?

So touchscreens though an old concept are becoming very popular and I can see the big gain for cellphones since controls generally are awkward.

But for normal computers, what is the real gain? I already have to wipe my screen too often, I don't want to wipe more often. I don't want to be negative to new technology(you usually end up looking like a fool) but I have never really felt like "Damn if I could just click the screen instead!", or maybe I am so used to using the mouse that I dont even consider that clicking would be very nice. Another thing is precision, don't we still need the mouse for a lot of tasks? A finger is quite blunt and clicking a small file might be hard. Maybe the whole interface would be changed though.

(Btw is there a saying for not judging things in their wrong environment? Like "don't judge a book by its cover" but in the form of "don't judge a F1-racing machine on a normal road" or something like that.)

Touchscreens are great for applications that don't require a keyboard. Non-technical people like touching screens. It usually means a simple UI and a small feature set.

Has anyone combined the ideas behind the theremin with the touch screen? - This way you wouldn't have to ever touch the screen and there would be an extra degree of freedom in the distance from the screen.

One thing that I hate most is having to switch between interface methods and devices. If I can't do everything I need to do quickly, intuitively, and accurately with a touchscreen, then I don't want one. I don't want it for the 10% of the time that it might be useful if I still need a keyboard for the other 90% of the time.

That's not to say that I don't think that it COULD be useful at some point. If I had a computer that only had touchscreen and had excellent voice recognition capabilities, that would be a workable solution for the right application.

I'd love to touch my screen! I'd also like my keyboard, mouse and monitors to be touch sensitive screens (same form factor but made with a 'screen' layered over them. So my mouse/keyboard can be completely customizable to the task at hand.

Now if they can get the screen surface to change texture AS WELL as the light that it emits it would be amazing. Rough and smooth surfaces for buttons etc.

Touch screens don't need to just be classic 'screens'.