MicroRolls: Expanding Touch-Screen Input Vocabulary by Distinguishing Rolls vs. Slides of the Thumb

Here's a new gesture for you: Microroll.

It's when you move a finger a small distance on the screen without sliding it. Screens of today can't discriminate between these gestures, but it certainly feels different to your finger. I've tried doing these gestures one-handed on diffent parts of the screen and it gets incredibly awkward on some places. Try it.

These guys say you can distinguish between slide and roll by doing analysis. But in my opinion that will intruduce unacceptable lag for direct manipulation. Maybe it could work on an offscreen keyboard. But for what?