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Comment by keiferski | Hacker News Reader

It seems like a crazy thing to say, but the phone/tablet format is actually not very natural. It is more natural than the previous generation of computers that require being stationary and using a complicated keyboard, sure. But holding a device in your hand and staring at it isn’t really the optimal way of using technology.

Which is a long way of saying that even if this generation of AR devices don’t take off, they will eventually. And they will most likely become the default way most people use a computing device. I cannot imagine a future where people prefer to hold a little black box in their hands instead of putting on a pair of glasses. In a century we may look back at the screen phone model as a curious anachronism.

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You've actually got it backwards.

There's a reason that mice and keyboards are faster and more accurate than touchscreens, and it's that there is a physical+visual feedback occurring that our brains are used to processing when handling other physical objects. Touchscreens have no haptic component (or they have a vibration that is disconnected from the action that you're actually doing on the screen), so you're relying entirely on visual cues. It's slower and less accurate. Compare max WPM on physical vs touch keyboards, for instance.

Moving to AR/VR is even worse, because the lag time is much larger than on a touchscreen, and in the case of VR, your hands are completely hidden.

Keyboards may be more efficient, but do you see people using blackberries today? If your theory was correct, we wouldn’t all be using touchscreens.

> we wouldn’t all be using touchscreens

We're not, for tasks that require speed and accuracy (like typing). We're mostly using keyboards and mice/ trackpads. Touchscreens are used on low-impact, secondary devices like phones or tablets.

I've never once seen someone, whose work is digital, replace their computer with a phone as their primary work device.

Sure, but where did I say that work computers would be replaced by VR/AR? In my original comment I specially said phones might seem anachronistic. And the usage of phones (computing devices) almost certainly dwarfs usage of standalone computers.

You are somewhat arguing against a straw man here. I was talking about phones being unnatural and thus replaced by AR/VR.

I was arguing against what seemed in your comment like you were saying that touchscreen keyboards were a progression from physical ones, and then from touchscreen ones a progression to AR/VR.

I agree that pane-of-glass, non-reactive and non-tactile input is unnatural, but AR and VR are literally that turned up to 1000. Doing the zoom finger-pinch in midair is even less natural than doing it on a glass screen.

The touchscreen might be better than you're giving it credit for. Direct interaction (vs the indirectness of mice, keyboards, gesture) is one benefit that I can't see done better any other way. I think people will always have some kind of handheld touchscreen as a result.

Hmm, touchscreens are a good counter point, but I do think they might be replaceable with AR glasses. It doesn’t seem difficult to mimic a feedback mechanism with only visual feedback and/or a light vibration from the goggles themselves.

I actually think it may be the opposite: direct input like keyboards might be around longer simply because they don’t require you to be looking at your hands to use them. Both touchscreens and AR goggles do.

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