Rowley Associates

I am always interested to learn about what drives innovation and the story behind the gesture driven interface of the Apple iPhone and iTouch is a wonderful example as to how adversity can drive innovation. Wayne Westerman, one half of the duo credited with taking multi-touch mainstream, got his motivation for a touch screen from a bout with tendinitis, which impaired his ability to work at a computer, and his experience playing piano. Interviewed by the University of Delaware (where Westerman got his doctorate) he commented, “I had an ergonomic problem (tendinitis) and paired it with a motivation … I'd always felt that playing the piano was so much more graceful and expressive than using a computer keyboard”. His breakthrough moment? “I thought how great it would be if I pulled some of that expression from the piano to the computer experience.” The rest, as they say is history. Apple bought Westerman's Company, Fingerworks, hired him as a Senior Engineer to work on the iPhone and computing will never been the same.

The lesson Westerman teaches us is that with the right temperament adversity can be the oxygen of innovation. Given the current economic situation I’d say we are pretty saturated with 02 right now!