Computershave been around for more than half a century , and yet the mode most citizenry interact with them has n’t deepen much . Thekeyboardswe economic consumption evolved from typewriter , a technology that date stamp back almost 150 years . Douglas Carl Engelbert demonstrated a equipment that we ’d later call a computer black eye back in 1968 [ source : MIT ] . Even the graphic user interface ( GUI ) has been around for a while – the first one to take in popularity in the consumer marketplace was on the Macintosh in 1984 [ source : Utah State University ] . Considering the fact that information processing system are far more knock-down today than they were 50 years ago , it ’s surprising that our basic user interface have n’t changed much .
Today , we ’re starting to see more dramatic departure from the keyboard - and - black eye interface configuration . Touchscreen devices like smartphones and tablet estimator have insert this technology – which has been around for more than a X – to a wider interview . We ’re also making smaller figurer , which take new approach to exploiter interfaces . You would n’t want a full - sized keyboard attach to yoursmartphone– it would ruin the experience .
Touchscreens have introduced new techniques for computer navigation . other touchscreens could only discover a single tip of contact – if you tried touching a display with more than one fingerbreadth , it could n’t follow your movements . But today , you could find multitouch screens in dozens of computer equipment . Engineers have taken vantage of this engineering science to develop gesture navigation . substance abuser can execute specific program line with predetermined gesture . For example , several touchscreen devices like the Apple iPhone take into account you to whizz in on a pic by placing two fingers on the screen and drawing them apart . Pinching your fingerbreadth together will zoom out on the photo .
The University of Tokyo ’s Khronos Projector experiment combines a mite user interface with fresh method of navigating prerecorded video . The system consist of a projector and tv camera wax behind a flexible screen . The projector displays images on the screenland while the photographic camera discover changes in the CRT screen ’s tension . A user can push against the screen to affect prerecord television – speeding a section of the video up or slowing it down while the rest of the picture remains unmoved .
The Khronos Projector have you see issue in unexampled configurations of blank space and time . Imagine a video recording of two people racing down the street side by side . By pressing against the screen , you could manipulate the images so that one person seems to be leading the other . By displace your hand across the screen , you could make the two people swap . telecasting that seemed to observe one band of rules now follow another band [ source : University of Tokyo ] .
Interacting with a screen is just the beginning . Next , we ’ll look at how engineers are developing ways for us to interact with computers without touching anything at all .
Hands-off Interfaces
As some engineers lick on new ways for us to manipulate computers through touch , others are looking at similar ways to control them through sound . Voice recognitiontechnology has made great advances since 1952 , when Bell Laboratories build a organization that could recognize digits spoken by a single user [ source : Juang and Rabiner ] . Today , devices likesmartphonescan transcribe voice substance into textbook subject matter with variable accuracy . And there are already applications that grant users to hold equipment through vocal command .
This engineering is still in its infancy . We ’re learning how to teach computers to recognize sound and distinguish between different words and bid . But most of these applications work within a somewhat narrow chain of sounds – if you do n’t enunciate a command correctly , the computing gadget may ignore you or fulfill the improper command . It ’s not a simple problem to figure out – learn calculator to interpret a mountain range of sound and pick out the best result from all possibility is complicated .
Other engineers are working on an wholly dissimilar hands - innocent interface . Oblong Industries created the g - speak user interface . If you ’ve seen the film " Minority Report , " the M - speak should appear familiar to you . In the film , some characters control figure on a computer concealment without touching the simple machine at all . The g - speak system of rules accomplishes this using a collecting of sensors andcamerasto interpret a user ’s apparent motion and translate them into computer command . The user put on a special brace of glove that have reflective beads on them . The camera cut across the movement of the beads to interpret the user ’s movements .
The user stands in front of a screen or paries . projector showing ikon that the drug user can manipulate by moving his or her hands through three - dimensional infinite . You do n’t have to transform your commands into computer spoken language or use a black eye on a plane perpendicular to your video display – just wangle your information by moving your hands [ source : Oblong Industries ] .
Your interactions with information processing system organisation may even become passive . Using radiofrequency designation ( RFID ) tag , you’re able to interact with computer system just by being near them . This engineering science can have harmless , sport apply like dog you as you walk through an environment so that your favorite variety of music plays in each room or the climate control organization adjusts to your preselected preferences . Or it could be used for surveillance purposes to dog people as they move through an environment .
It can also assist you cook dinner . envisage bringing home a collection of ingredients , each of which has an RFID tatter . Your home ’s integrated computer system detects what you ’ve brought and find you require to make lasagna . Instantly , your home produces the formula and asks if you want to preheat your oven . Do you think of this scenario as a futuristic utopia or an Orwellian incubus where stores track every intersection you bribe and build dossiers on each client ?
Or you may not need RFID chip at all . Microsoft ’s Kinect peripheral for the Xbox 360 uses cameras to map out the environment in front of the entertainment eye . As a user step in front of the camera , the system map the exploiter ’s shape and face and provide the user to create a profile . Then , whenever that person step into bod , the system knows who it is . The profile can store exploiter preferences and skill levels so you do n’t have to worry about jump into a secret plan and getting your theatrical role slaughtered five seconds into it .
While early uses for Kinect revolve around game , social networking and command media on your boob tube , we may see future integration with other computer system . Imagine seat down to a computer and watching as it mechanically switches to your preferences . Your favourite bookmarks stretch up and the applications you employ most oft are cheeseparing at hired man . Then you get up and a friend sits down . The estimator swop to your friend ’s preferences , giving your admirer an entirely different experience .
There ’s another way we could go with user interfaces – directly to your mentality .
I Think, Therefore I Compute
Your wit is galvanizing . The nerve cubicle in your brain – calledneurons– pass along through modest electrical signals . These bantam electrical charges pass through the dendrites and axons throughout your skittish organisation . Any natural process you take , conscious or not , bet upon these brass cell send a particular serial of electrical charges through the right pathway .
If we find a way to represent these sign , we can make a twist that detects , interprets and translates them so that they can be used to keep in line external devices . We call it abrain - reckoner port . Ideally , there would be nothing between you and the information processing system – your thoughts would become commands seamlessly .
In reality , it ’s much more complicated than that . One problem is detecting the brainpower activity . Many systems use an electroencephalograph ( EEG ) to get a glimpse of what ’s going on inside your noggin . The EEG has a set of electrodes that you have to attach to your scalp at specific compass point . It determine your orbit of movement and tether you to yourcomputer . And an EEG wo n’t give you the best signal – to do that , you ’d ask to implant electrode directly into your brain . This raises some ethical questions and order restriction on how much inquiry engine driver can conduct into encephalon - computer interfaces .
On top of that , our brains are complicated and we ’re easily distracted . branch clean commands from the racket we generate in our brains is n’t easy . It takes many hour to fine - tune an interface so that the figurer can distinguish between existent command and background noise .
scheduling computers to interpret the signaling and translate them into command is also complicated . So far , engineers have follow in create interface that can react to simple commands . There ’s even a system that allows people to communicate through thought develop by scientists at the University of Southampton . One subject recall about an activity such as raising his or her left arm to signify a predetermined word such as " zero . " The EEG ship the sign from the subject ’s genius to a computer . The calculator render the signal and encodes it as a content and sends it to a lamp . The lamp blinks in a speedy episode . A 2d subject look on the episode and an EEG measures his or her brain wave . A second estimator interprets this information and decodes it to mean " zero . "
The heavy downside of that system is that while the second subject receives the message , he or she is n’t capable to understand it . It ’s only with the help of the 2d figurer that the message can be understood . But the experiment may head to further developments that will get us curb computers and even communicate just by thinking .
Whether we end up doing the employment – physically or mentally – or figurer figure out what we require just by discover us , it ’s unclouded that the basic computer interface isevolving . Could it be that within a generation or two the keyboard and mouse combo will belong in a museum ?
Learn more about computer interfaces by follow the links on the next page .
