The Potential Health Risks of Multitouch Devices

 

Multitouch user input is the current “latest big thing” in mobile computing. With the runaway popularity of Apple’s iPhone and iPad, and the company’s pioneering multitouch laptop trackpads now being busily copied across the industry, some suggest that multitouch devices will soon displace the traditional mouse.

However, revolutions in user input technology can result in unforeseen consequences, an emblematic example being the spike in repetitive stress injury that resulted from the switch from traditional “springy,” raked typewriter keyboards to flatter, often “clicky,” and frequently hard-landing, computer keyboards back in the ’80s.

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