BitShareIs this really what future technology will consist of?
Microsoft created a video a few days ago on what their vision of future technology will look like. According to the well put together video, it’s a lot of what we have now mixed in with some futuristic visions like smart devices that you touch to use. I just finished reading a great rant by Brent Victor basically shooting down the vision in the video.
As Brent points out in the video above, there is a lot of hand gestures and movements on devices similar to what we have now (eg. iPhones, iPads). He calls it Pictures Under Glass. I recommend that you read his rant, it’s really good and his thoughts explained are well said.
In his rant he doesn’t give a solution, but points out that the vision in the video is short sighted, which it is. He suggests that we think broader, pointing out links to Tangible User Interfaces. I think he is spot on that the technology in the video is good and is actually what we may see in the next 3-5 years. But what about in 10 years? I don’t see the vision in the video to be the type of technology of the future.
Sci-fi movies are make believe, but often times they get the future right. Here are seven movies that got the future right. When I think about tangible user interfaces, for some reason the first thing I thought of was the recently made movie Avatar. In the movie, one scene that I thought of is where the two military guys are talking about the home of the Na’vi, which is the local tribe that lives in a huge tree on planet Pandora, which is the setting of the movie. In the scene, they bring up the tree using a tangible user interface.
In the scene, they can touch the 3D interface, move it around to learn how big it is, what the surface is like and locations within the tree. To me, this is a tangible interface. It’s actually called a Projection Augmented Model. With future technology one would be able to perform actions on the interface, using our hands, similar to the movie scene. Here is an example of Projection Augmented Model:
Does Brent have all the answers, probably not. Neither do I and most people might not at this stage in technology. But the future of technology won’t be picking up an iPad and performing actions on glass; it will be objects that we can project and manipulate to do the things we want.
