Opening Keynote (Chris Harrison)

Seven years ago, multi-touch devices went mainstream, and changed our field, the industry and our lives. In that time, mobile devices have gotten much more capable, yet the core user experience has evolved little. Contemporary touch gestures rely on poking screens with different numbers of fingers: one-finger tap, two-finger pinch, three-finger swipe and so on. We often label these as "natural" interactions, yet the only place I perform these "gestures" is on my touchscreen device. We are also too quick to blame the "fat finger" problem for much of our touch interface woes - if a zipper or pen were too small to use, we would simply call that "bad design". Fortunately, our fingers and hands are amazing, and with good technology and design, we can elevate touch interaction to new heights. I believe the era of multi-touch is coming to a close, and that we are on the eve of an exciting new age of "rich-touch" devices and experiences.

Chris Harrison is an Assistant Professor of Human-Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon University. He broadly investigates novel sensing technologies and interaction techniques, especially those that empower people to interact with small devices in big ways. Harrison was recently named as one of the top 30 scientists under 30 by Forbes, a top 35 innovator under 35 by MIT Technology Review, and one of six innovators to watch in 2013 by Smithsonian. He is also the CTO of Qeexo, a touchscreen technology startup. When not in the lab, Chris can be found welding sculptures, blowing glass, and visiting remote corners of the globe.