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The Future of UI

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Re: The Future of UI

#21

Post by evo_9 »

stcredzero wrote: post #4
treblig wrote: post #3

At the end he mentions "[In 5 years time,] when you buy a computer, you'll get this." I think that's about 5 years too soon on that one. Incredible demonstrations though... awesome to see science fiction become reality.

All you need is a large display and a webcam. Isn't Microsoft already doing this for gaming? The enhanced resolution Wii controller with a large flatscreen already has most of this capability.

Yes Microsoft is releasing Project Natal (rumored to b renamed Wave)for the Xbox this September. It uses a similar array of cameras to track multiple users for gaming and it can be used to navigate the 360's Ui.

Should be interesting for gaming, but just as in general computing application this type of control mechanism isn't suited as a complete replacement for a mouse or a joystick.

Re: The Future of UI

#22

Post by jules »

uptown wrote: post #20
musclman wrote: post #7

Sure, it looks cool, but it appears to require a lot of slow and inefficient physical movement to accomplish the most basic of tasks. Imagine a bunch of cubical works sitting at their desktops waving their arms around trying to navigate their computer's file system :-)

Here's a video demo of Project Natal in use that looks exhausting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm0KKa6wACQ

It looks like being exhausting was the point of the application.

Re: The Future of UI

#23

Post by jules »

tgandrews wrote: post #15

The moving physical objects makes sense, touch makes sense. Learning a series of gestures to manipulate data on a screen makes less sense to me than a mouse. The mouse is movement and control, the gestures need you to hold your hands in strange positions and move within a field of view (what the camera can see). An improved design will need to be intuitive.

What would make sense I think it just using your hands on the table instead of using a mouse. Touchpads do some of this but they don't work very well and the surface is usually very small.

Re: The Future of UI

#24

Post by lkozma »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #12
musclman wrote: post #7

Sure, it looks cool, but it appears to require a lot of slow and inefficient physical movement to accomplish the most basic of tasks. Imagine a bunch of cubical works sitting at their desktops waving their arms around trying to navigate their computer's file system :-)

Keep in mind that, like most of the things designed at the Media Lab, this was built to look really good in demos. The movements are big and inefficient so they will show up well on stage and on camera. In the real world the movements might be much more subtle. Certainly no broader than, say, American Sign Language, which is quite analogous to what we are reinventing here.

Sorry, I'm skeptical about that. The movements are big so that they will be captured and correctly interpreted by their pattern recognition system. I think they would not be able to detect very subtle movements like ASL. It is ingenious to claim that it was made artificially big and clumsy for the audience.

Re: The Future of UI

#25

Post by ams6110 »

treblig wrote: post #3

At the end he mentions "[In 5 years time,] when you buy a computer, you'll get this." I think that's about 5 years too soon on that one. Incredible demonstrations though... awesome to see science fiction become reality.

Sigh. In 5 year's time I'm quite certain I'll still be spending 90% of my time in Emacs or a shell, just like I was doing 5, 10, 15, 20 years ago.

Re: The Future of UI

#26

Post by hop »

sdfx wrote: post #16

These new UI concepts are always awe inspiring, but what is really the benefit of using them? One of the most popular demonstrations is browsing through a bunch of photos on a huge screen with large gestures. While this looks quite impressive it's inaccurate when performing specific tasks (e.g. the color-selection planes in the video), the gestures are limited and you have to learn somewhat unintuitive ones apart fro…

Their incentive is to make it look cool, wow an audience, and bring more grant money to the MIT Media Lab. Contrast this with a company that puts the pieces together and ships a useful product - like the iPad UI...

I always thought crazy concept cars were a waste of time and resources for car companies. If they instead focused on massive in-house iteration (like Apple's 10-3-1 prototyping process), better cars would be brought to market.

Re: The Future of UI

#27

Post by stanleydrew »

lkozma wrote: post #24
mechanical_fish wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind that, like most of the things designed at the Media Lab, this was built to look really good in demos. The movements are big and inefficient so they will show up well on stage and on camera. In the real world the movements might be much more subtle. Certainly no broader than, say, American Sign Language, which is quite analogous to what we are reinventing here.

Sorry, I'm skeptical about that. The movements are big so that they will be captured and correctly interpreted by their pattern recognition system. I think they would not be able to detect very subtle movements like ASL. It is ingenious to claim that it was made artificially big and clumsy for the audience.

I think you mean disingenuous.

Re: The Future of UI

#28

Post by frou_dh »

I respect the chops of those creating these things but I just don't feel like I'd want to use them daily. Perhaps I'm already locked in to a legacy mindset by my mid 20s!

Re: The Future of UI

#29

Post by MikeCapone »

hop wrote: post #26
sdfx wrote: post #16

These new UI concepts are always awe inspiring, but what is really the benefit of using them? One of the most popular demonstrations is browsing through a bunch of photos on a huge screen with large gestures. While this looks quite impressive it's inaccurate when performing specific tasks (e.g. the color-selection planes in the video), the gestures are limited and you have to learn somewhat unintuitive ones apart fro…

Their incentive is to make it look cool, wow an audience, and bring more grant money to the MIT Media Lab. Contrast this with a company that puts the pieces together and ships a useful product - like the iPad UI... I always thought crazy concept cars were a waste of time and resources for car companies. If they instead focused on massive in-house iteration (like Apple's 10-3-1 prototyping process), better cars would…

> I always thought crazy concept cars were a waste of time and resources for car companies. If they instead focused on massive in-house iteration (like Apple's 10-3-1 prototyping process), better cars would be brought to market.

Definitely. I've been watching the car industry for a few years now, and I'm still waiting for an "Apple" to emerge.

Re: The Future of UI

#30

Post by riffer »

MikeCapone wrote: post #29
hop wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their incentive is to make it look cool, wow an audience, and bring more grant money to the MIT Media Lab. Contrast this with a company that puts the pieces together and ships a useful product - like the iPad UI... I always thought crazy concept cars were a waste of time and resources for car companies. If they instead focused on massive in-house iteration (like Apple's 10-3-1 prototyping process), better cars would…

> I always thought crazy concept cars were a waste of time and resources for car companies. If they instead focused on massive in-house iteration (like Apple's 10-3-1 prototyping process), better cars would be brought to market. Definitely. I've been watching the car industry for a few years now, and I'm still waiting for an "Apple" to emerge.

I've been watching the car industry for a few years now, and I'm still waiting for an "Apple" to emerge.

Give Tesla a few years

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