The Present and Future of User Interface

Interactions with computers have made some rather amazing advances. We started with punch cards and ticker tape, and technology has marched forward from there to keyboards and beyond. The last revolution in interface technology was made by Xerox when they invented the first mouse.

The mouse was a simple affair. It was just a box with a single button and two wheels: one for up and down motion, the other for left and right. Xerox was able to demonstrate how this technology could be used with virtual buttons on a computer screen. At the time, this technology was revolutionary; it was a massive step forward in making computers be user-friendly.

Looking at any computer that we use today, it is readily apparent that despite continued and exponential advancement, the basics of user interface have remained largely the same since the mouse first appeared. Our mice these days may use cameras instead of wheels to sense motion, and our buttons may be more numerous and shinier, but nothing has really changed for the average user.

Of course, a new form of interaction has rushed onto the stage: touch technology, the ability to use our fingers to manipulate what we see on a computer screen. This has been further advanced with the concept of multi-touch technology, which allows a computer to take multiple simultaneous touch actions at the same time. The most popular example of this technology is of course, the iPhone, but that is just a drop in the pond compared to what is possible on a larger scale.



The above video is a combination of technical demos demonstrating the power and intuitiveness of a multitouch interface. The display in the video was created by Jeff Han, and uses a simpler and more scalable technology than the iPhone. The iPhone detects touch from changes in electronic capacitance caused by touching the screen. However, this technology is very complicated, and very expensive to implement on a large scale.

As Kate Green writes in this article, Han’s multi-touch technology is different. His screen is a 6 millimeter thick acrylic panel. The edges of this panel are lined with infrared light emitting diodes. The light from these LEDs normally stays inside the acrylic panel, but when the panel is touched, the light is reflected out of the panel. This light is picked up by an infrared camera behind the panel, and the software is easily able to process these globs of light into distinct individual touches.

Another product that takes advantage of this technology is the Microsoft Surface. This device is the size of a table, and it takes advantage of both multitouch and image recognition technology to pull off rather impressive feats.



All this technology is pretty fancy and new. But what’s the next step? The technological world has never been content to just sit back, it’s always looking forward, and the next step will put us firmly in line towards science fiction. Holograms have always been a staple of fictionally advanced worlds, and there have been some rather significant advances in our world. However, one thing that has always seemed to not quite be possible was interactive holography. Well, we can count that dream to be solidly on track with the efforts of a team from the University of Tokyo.



The technology in the video is relatively simple. The hologram is created by an LCD screen being projected into a concave mirror. The hand tracking is created with infrared LEDs reflecting back at the two Wii Remotes (the two Wii Remotes gives the program the ability to sense depth like our eyes). Finally, the finishing touch is the ultrasonic relay which gives the user touch feedback, also called “haptic” feedback. This allows a user of this technology to touch and interact with the hologram, and feel like he or she is indeed touching that device.

What does this mean for the future? We need only to look at science fiction to tell us what’s in store for us. As these separate technologies compress and become more advanced, the devices we use will approach what science fiction has placed into our imaginations. The future is close at hand.

Works Referenced

Greene, Kate. “Touch Screens for Many Fingers.” Technology Review. MIT, January 18, 2007. Link.

Han, Jeff. “Multi-Touch Interaction Research.” New York University. 2006. Link.

Hoshi, Takayuki et al. Touchable Holography. The University of Tokyo. 2009. Link.

“iPod Touch Technology.” iPod Touch. Apple inc. 2009. Link.

Multi-Touch Interaction Experiments. Jefferson Han et al. 2006. Imbedded Video. Link.

Touchable Holography. ShindoaLab. July 16, 2009. YouTube Link.

Just an interesting video

This video isn't particularly prevalent to anything, and it's a couple years old now, but it's got some very interesting information about society and our trends, so I figured I'd post it.

Technology, Entertainment, and the Rise of the Internet

We all know that our advances in technology -and our growing dependence on the internet- have drastically changed the way we find entertainment. Both the music and film industries have seen giant movements in the way music is produced and shared. Today, anyone can go on the internet and usually find what they're looking for- and it doesn't have to come at a price. Torrent websites/clients and other file sharing programs have made it easy for people to download movies, music, games...just about anything, for free. But, if doing stuff legally is more of someone's thing, he or she can also purchase what they want in a digital format, like mp3s on iTunes.

So what about one of the oldest sources of entertainment...books? Books are also seeing a "2.0" kind of future, as mentioned in this article: "Books are being pushed aside for digital learning centers and gaming areas. 'Loud rooms' that promote public discourse and group projects are taking over the bookish quiet. Hipster staffers who blog, chat on Twitter and care little about the Dewey Decimal System are edging out old-school librarians."

I love listening to vinyl (a gramophone record). Not only are most of my favorite pieces of music/albums from the 1960s & '70s, but the sometimes scratchy, crackly, vintage sound can give the music authenticity, and shows the listener how it was originally played by people (which I think is wicked cool). Vinyl has become somewhat of a trendy kind of thing nowadays, where there are younger people such as myself wanting to "bring back" an old way of doing something; there are also many independent artists who release their albums (LPs!) on vinyl in addition to a compact disc to keep with the trend. Now, I also love reading BOOKS, too. Reading something on a screen is okay, but it's definitely not something I like to do for hours on end. So I'm curious...will books phase out like a gramophone record? Will the Kindle become the new iPod? What will happen to publishing companies? Personally, I would be devastated if books almost became non-existent. I don't see it happening for a while...but the possibility is always there.

"The future of libraries, with our without books." John D. Sutter. CNN, 2009. Web. 7 Sept. 2009.

Society Craves Mobile Technology

November 2001, AT&T launched a groundbreaking addition to the mobile phone community. Text messaging became public and was on the rise to popularity. This new technology opened doorways in the design and capabilities of cell phones. As texting became more popular throughout the years, inventions to aid texters were developed. T9(predictive text) and full keyboards integrated into cell phones made sending messages much easier. As more and more updates became prominent, more options opened up in the world of texting. For example, cameras built into cell phones made it possible to send and receive pictures and videos. The mobile communication field has come along way since text messaging was introduced. Cell phones are now a huge part of human culture. We crave innovation and are always wanting what is cool and trendy in the world of technology.

As of today, a phone with only texting and picture/video messaging is a thing of the past. Smart phones are in demand now. With the full power of the Internet, custom applications, music and your favorite social networking sites at your fingertips, smart phones are becoming a very popular and very useful piece of technology. You can now, post blog updates, send e-mails, and instant message instead of just texting. Mobile technology has become much more advanced in the past few years and it's only going to get better.

Workes cited:
http://cell-phones.suite101.com/article.cfm/cell_phone_history

http://www.usshortcodes.com/csc_history.html

A Few Things That Didn't Make the Cut

Here are a few videos that I thought would be fantastic to share, but I couldn't really connect.

Blue Man's Society

I would like you all to first watch this video then proceed to what I’ve written.




This video is essentially directly emphasizing people’s initial reactions to technology. The way I see the video is that the Blue Man Group is directly related to the population. They see a new piece of technology, aka the funky pipe thing. When they first start using the pipe thing it is very new and strange to them and as they use it they start to learn what it can do. As this progressed they learn to master the new thing and harbor its abilities. This is when they become (no pun intended) in tune with the new technology.
This video to me explains how the human race works with technology. We first see the technology and question its uses or practicalities. After we are comfortable with that we start to experiment and eventually we thrive and learn what all is possible with that technology. Just like the Blue Man Group once we master one technology we build another to keep our ever-growing desire to find new products that we start the process over and over. This video just put that in perspective for me as I watched it and me hope you all got the same reaction.