Some technologies look so cool and nifty but they don’t change much of our life and behaviour. Other technologies might not look so interesting or sometimes even boring but will have a crucial role in our future lives.
For instance 3D TV that I wrote about before will not have any special impact on our lives as far as I understand. It would be nice to see TV in 3D of course!
Now let’s focus on User Interfaces (UI’s) for Computers. UI’s does really have an impact. For instance when Xerox and later Apple started with Graphical User Interfaces back in the 79/80′s they begun a movement that eventually Microsoft made to an empire with its Windows! The iPhone started a revolution with its easy to use interface combined with the App concept. Currently I have seen how iPhones/iPods are starting to be used in industrial environment for tasks where the UI is the key feature.
With that said I think it is clear that UI’s can change our routines and behaviour, that is our lifes.
Augmented Reality
Augmented reality is when you can see the “real objects” around you as they are but additional information is superimosed to the objects, that you also can see. You can see it on a display or through special glasses.
You need two things to make it work:
- A device that can identify objects. An object can be identified in many ways. For instance, it can be a camera together with software that identifies objects on the video/picture or a RFID reader that identifies tags on the objects or Near Field Communication (NFC) with similar function as RFID.
- A display that shows you the real object with something superimposed on it. It can be a screen (mobile or laptop) or glasses with a built in dipsplay.
Augmented Reality (AR) has been around for a while but it has never really taken off. However now we can see signs that the next generation of AR is coming. Two companies comes to my mind: Metaio and Total Immersion, both have some really impressive products. Take a look at the video on this Metaio page. It gives a good example of augmented reality. Total Immersion’s Video galley is quite awesome. There are many ways to utilize this technology. When you enter a new town you can get information of streets and buildings just by pointing at them, Going out: Outdoor Augmented reality. Example of AR in surgery. Example of AR in museums.
Combine AR with MIT’s research sixth sense and welcome to a new world of possibilities!
Voice recognition
Picture by suneko
Voice recognition (or Speech recognition) is when computer systems can interpretate human speech.
If we can speak to the system some tasks will take much shorter time such as writing messages, notes, calender bookings etc. Even longer texts can be easier to produce. Talking is much more fluent, for most of us, compared to writing. Think about it, we are surrounded by systems where a voice interface would be much more convenient. In the car, while driving, we often want to control several systems. AC, lights, seat positions, radaio, telephone and much more. We have lifts, doors and other objects that could be controlled by voice commands. Our smartphones are not so very smart until they understand speach. Se my previous post Why doesn’t smartphones have a voice interface?. I can only smile when recently I noted that the new iPhone 3.0 does have a voice interface. Exactly the feature that I suggested that Nokia and SonyEricsson should use to compete with iPhone!
At some point in the future, voice recognition may become speech understanding. This will be the base to do “perfect” translations between languages. Yes I know, there are no really perfect translations but I mean best possible. Actually speech recognition is enough to do fairly good translations such as Google translate currently can do but speech understanding is needed to reach the next level. See my previous post Machine translation, an experiment.
e-Readers
Picture by jblyberg
An e-Reader is a device that can be loaded with books and documents and it delivers a reading experience similar to paper. Without the backlight and shattering text that computer screens have.
See my previous post Will e-Readers save the world?
When e-Readers get even better with lower price I believe that it will be a real hit. Bye bye print-on-paper (almost!).
Bendable displays/e-Paper
Picture by oskay
A bendable or flexible display can be bended and folded. This is sometimes referred as e-paper.
A flexible screen is especially interesting for mobile devices but there are currently no ready to use technolgy. Currently OLED is one of the interesing technologies to use. OLED have some disadvantages. It is expensive and it is reported that the blue color eventually get bad quality. During the years to come the price will go down and some of the alternative technologies will probably be developed.
Some other interesting Computer Interfaces
I said four but couldn’t resist to mention a few more!
- The sixth sense, a MIT project
- Gesture Interface Here is an example
- Robot/Humanoid Interface
Some scientists believe that robots will be our future personal helpers. Mechanical butlers! They will not only clean our houses, they will also help us with remembering things and also finding information at the Internet. Rather than searching at Google (or whatever) you will ask the robot that will do the search for you, you tell the robot what you will Twitter about and he/she/it writes it down for you directly on Twitter and so on. You can see the result displayed or the humanoid tell you the result. It will take some time before this works good enough. Whithin 10 years is probably too soon, maybe 15-20 years is more realistic. Picture by digitalshay
Some other Links
Humanoids – the next generation
Robots brain and muscels – Brain interface to robots
