Cutting Edge Computer Interfaces? 106
Senate Staffer asks: "I am doing some research for U.S. Senator on technology advancements, specifically in the field of computer interfaces. Human-Computer interface tools have not changed for quite some time. The keyboard was grandfathered from the type-writer, and although there have been advancements (ergonomic designs, different key layouts, even different shapes), the basic function has not changed. The mouse was a major new advancement for computers, and again, although there have been advancements (track-balls, optical mice, trackpads, etc) the function has remained the same. What cutting edge technologies are being researched today and where? What technologies are currently available to consumers, and what technologies are on the horizon?"
Haptics (Score:5, Interesting)
Voice, Eye Tracking, and Handwriting (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd also look into all the research that has been done in various disorders and disabilities that have to do with viewing, hearing, typing, and moving a mouse. Some of these things have made it into mainstream use. For instance, the research done to make colors more visible to the colorblind has affected how (professional) people design websites nowadays.
Take for instance what has been done for those people mostly paralyzed or incapable of controlling their extremities. We have technology to track ones eyes. One day, we won't have to use mice to control a cursor or select things. Just look and blink.
Combine this with voice recognition, we'll be able to look at a text form widget, and say the words to fill in, then blink to hit "submit".
One other system that is important is handwriting and OCR. Being able to write in boxes in a paper form and then scan that image in, having the computer read the form, is a breakthrough. It isn't being used much yet, but I think it is going to be used more and more.
I strongly believe that in the future, we'll have to understand computers less and less because they will understand us more and more. The pinnacle of computing is when we will relate to computers the same way people relate to each other. When they understand every nuance, every motion, every word, and even the intonation, then we will have made a computer that no one has to understand to use.
Gesture interfaces (Score:4, Interesting)
You mentioned trackpads, but the stuff from fingerworks [fingerworks.com] goes a bit beyond this and supports a gesturing interface. I've used one for about a year and bought several as backups (the thing is incredibly durable) just because I know I'll never be able to live without it again.
I also recall a demo -- sorry, no link -- that used webcam-style cameras to watch eye movements and use that as part of the active window selection process. There was another demo at Intel Developer Forum last year that did something similar, but turned off a notebook's display when you weren't looking at it to save power.
Well.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Somebody once said, though I can't remember the book, that a word processor did most of the same things it does now, twenty years ago, except that now we have rounded corners. The illustration is vague, but it serves to point out that there haven't been huge breakthroughs in the way we work, despite incredibly advanced technologies sitting on our doorstep. Whether this is good or bad, make your own call.
I, personally, think there are better solutions to things like top-screen menus, and file management. The number one question I get asked about in various levels of IT support is what damn function is in what damn menu. It's hard for many people to remember which functions belong to which menus, especially because we have so many menus that give no clue to the functions they hold -- e.g., File->Exit is a holdover from the days when you couldn't open more than one document. Similarly, Edit->Preferences is a good guess, except that most people associate Edit with file content, not program-level preferences, especially when there's often another menu under Tools for different options.
There's got to be a better way, said some guy, hopefully soon.
I always find it interesting that if we had taken any modern system back to 1985, the interface features that would be most ooed at would be the eyecandy, but not the productivity of the interface, since that's largely stayed the same. We still use a point and click interface for everything, and we still hold the contents of our programs in a computer-oriented interface, not a human-oriented interface -- the window. Clever solutions exist for rebottling some of these problems, e.g., scroll wheels on mice, different keyboards and input devices, and Expose, but it's still a situation that could be radically different. I'm just not sure how yet.
Many of the technologies we use now are no different than the ones created in the 1970s to solve these problems, but things have changed. An increasing number of novice users, handicapped users, etc., make many of these solutions a little too narrow. E.g., my mother, who is nearly blind and uses a screenreader, has pointed out many problems I would have never thought of as anything but accessibility issues, but they're not -- they're all interface design issues.
Now, I'm not suggesting that we talk to our computers tomorrow and then Hack Teh Gibson with our nintendo powergloves, but many of these interfaces are arcane. I'd like to see more seamless, fluid transition between programs, for example -- I should be able to use the text-editing features of Word when submitting a comment, or I should be able to insert Flash documents into my background art if I own Flash. More modular.
I'm just not sure how to do it yet.
Database filesystems, find data quicker. (Score:5, Interesting)
As for the GUI, I think its more autocomplete of processes, to reduce manual steps.
The biggest problem I see is forcing interactive moments on a busy user. Nothing is worse in the middle of typing a document and a popup window of some kind, flash in the tool tray until im ready.
And with people multitasking, I dont need a program to tell me its done in the middle of working on something else.
Displaying information while not forcing the user to interact is the next step. We are doing much more than before, multiple programs, multiple tasks, we need to curb the "In your face" attitude of the Gui.
While AI with interactive voice chat would be nice, unless its a virtual lawyer that can answer my questions or a hot stripper, I doubt I'm going to be using voice chat on a operational process.
Voice chat for games is another thing, when your busy, you cant stop to type, talking to the group saves time, and reaction time is quicker.
Of course these are my thoughts and views of current trends. Microsoft research and Cambridge labs are good places to check out. Cambridge ran the research lab that helped oversee VNC and other cool products, under Olivetti and then ATT Labs.
I think there is much more work todo in the modern desktop before we go onto new user input/output methods.
Top hottest things, tabs, info bars, task switching, searching, auto-complete, realtime filtering (spellcheck/etc), history of input, sharing of data with other hard (bluetooth/etc) are IMHO the current impressive new features. And if not new, just easier use or new methods of using the same procedures in a differnt way.
Too bad 2005 isnt going to see many new features, end of year with dual core, new gfx cards, the hardware to take advantage will launch 2006 for new features. But at least with SLI and faster CPUs, this year will be good for gaming until we get there.
Force Feedback / Haptic Devices (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Well.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Just now, I decided to find how many files where in my home directory. 48,125 in 3,096 folders over about 25 GB, and I have at least four times that amount on other accounts on other machines -- not to mention, none of this is source code, so it's not headers and little text documents cluttering my clusters. And the issue is, hierarchy becomes inefficient very quickly as the number of files increase. The only way I can find anything any more is by searching -- and I suspect this is the way data storage will behave in the future. I'd like to see the lines between data and 'application' blur a little bit (securely), and I'd like to see real computer-aided file management, almost to the point where say, saving and opening a file manually would be silly, and the way programs run alongside one another is more comprehensive. Think, plugins, not applications, I guess, where the "computer" is comprehensive, not a lot of unrelated pieces occasionally communicating.
Even still, I think these problems require a radically new way of thinking about the future of computing. They can't be solved with a new window manager, or a tiny new input device, we have to think about what people will be doing 20 years down the road, and redesign. E.g., the mouse and keyboard are completely useless and space-inefficient at anything but a desk. Speakable commands, maybe, but who knows? I think the next innovations will be something so wildly different it will be both "duh, why didn't we think of this before" and "this looks completely different".
But this is all me hoping I'll get one of those gloves from Minority Report for Christmas next year.
Re:Voice, Eye Tracking, and Handwriting (Score:3, Interesting)
What we really need is the *developers* to install some of these new interface ideas into their programs, as AOL did with AIM, and then we'll see how people figure out how to use them.
(Many MacOS text editors also allow you to use text-to-speech to read your documents out loud... this is a great way of finding typos and grammar mistakes.)
A few more interfaces (Score:2, Interesting)
Several posts have listed voice recognition and speech synthesis. This is great for the blind, disabled, or those of us with carpel tunnel and eye strain. Combined with translation software it can provide a great advantage to communications, and even has military applications. Google "Phraselator". Troops use it to translate a limited number of phrases into Arabic or whatever. Definitely a field where better software and more computing power could make a difference.
Gesture is another input interface where you don't need to be tied to a keyboard. The Sony Eye Toy is a crude version of this. Advances in machine vision are needed to move this foreword. Existing "VR glove" versions are unlikely to break into the main stream.
Biofeedback is an interesting case. The idea of manipulating a device just by "thinking" does have its appeal. The military has looked into this partially because a fighter jet already has too many buttons and switches.
Sound positioning is another one the military looked at for similar reasons. Games can already use surround sound to let you know that the monster is behind you.
3D displays have been worked on for a long time. Most still require goggles or have to be viewed from a specific angle. Electronics manufacturers develop systems for gamers and other consumers, universities want to model complex molecules in 3D.
Another immersive environment is being surrounded by screens. Look for articles on the CAVE virtual environment.
A heads up display (HUD) overlays computer data on the real world. The main down sides are that it tends to obstruct view and the wearable versions make you look like a dork.
Re:Well.. (Score:3, Interesting)
That's the one you are looking for - character based user interface using Win32 API for file manipulation. It is a shareware release of XTreeGold from the early 90's with a cult following dating back to about 1986. It won just about every user interface award known to man until it got dropped in about 1995.
Basically it recursively reads your entire drive (or a subset) and all the directories, gets the file names, sizes, attributes (RASH), dates, and directory structure, presents it in a multi-box character based user interface, and allows you to slice and dice your fileset using filters to only see the files you are interested in, and either walk up and down the tree using the arrow keys, move in and around files in a single directory, or treat branches of the tree (or the entire drive) as if all the files were in a single directory. Originally the program was written as an easy way to copy, delete, view, edit, move files, create and delete directories in the DOS world, but it grew over time into what it is today. One of the best 'side effects' of how it works is heuristic searching for file(s) when you know absolutely nothing firm about what you are looking for, but you would recognise it when you saw it (ie, a file you last edited sometime around Christmas, either a
Well... Since you've got your foot in the door, (Score:3, Interesting)
There's tax dollars well-spent asking Slashdot.
grandfathered? (Score:1, Interesting)
ITYM that the typewriter interface was the father of the computer keyboard.
3D and speech have been in the works as I/O interfaces since the 60's. Neither seem destined to replace the current devices. The problem is that they lack the precision of typing and pointing devices. Speech has had inroads in the telephone area where the alternative is the keypad.
The best interface in current use which has not been applied to computers is ASL. The deaf currently read/type messages, but I've often thought that the fluidity of signing is far more elegant and should be translatable to a graphical medium.