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The future of the human-computer interface?

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Re: The future of the human-computer interface?

#11
post #5

Anybody willing to take a bet that my keyboard is not going anywhere in my lifetime? The first time I was told that voice recognition is here and my keyboard is going away was about 20 years ago. Here I am today, still strangling to have Alexa understand simple commands. Thought controlled input? Forget about it in this lifetime.

Mice work well. Voice recognition works well for me. I still use the keyboard for most real work.

Similarly, I think we will see some degree of brain reading, but at least the first generation or two won't replace other input methods.

Re: The future of the human-computer interface?

#12
post #10

I'm calling bull. I would not trust some device to read my thoughts to write them to a Word document. Random thoughts are too uncontrollable. I would not trust my phone to connect automatically to any device, I see that's a huge risk. I would not trust my computer when I talk to it. Anyone can hear the conversation and it's disturbing in public spaces to other people. We saw this happen with Google Glass. People need…

I would love to be able to write code just with my thoughts. With the keyboard is not that bad, but in certain moments feels like the main bottleneck.

Re: The future of the human-computer interface?

#13
"Expect the way you interact with your laptop, tablet, and smartphone to change a lot in the next five to 10 years."

I am going to bet the opposite; we will interact with laptop, phones and tablets roughly in the same way as we do now in ten years. Voice control, thought control and VR headsets will be mostly a dud for anything beyond games and novelty.

Re: The future of the human-computer interface?

#14
post #13

"Expect the way you interact with your laptop, tablet, and smartphone to change a lot in the next five to 10 years." I am going to bet the opposite; we will interact with laptop, phones and tablets roughly in the same way as we do now in ten years. Voice control, thought control and VR headsets will be mostly a dud for anything beyond games and novelty.

We said that about touch, and now most human-computer interaction is via touch screen.

Re: The future of the human-computer interface?

#15

If mere thought is input to the computer, then why should its output be presented to you as a physical stimulus? Like, why would there be a hologram telling you how to cook a recipe when it could just present itself as a hallucination? Better yet, save the time and make it seem like a memory of something you already know how to do. Or why not have the program operate your physical body directly? Or why not give you n…

So this article wants us to believe that we're going to find revolutionary new ways of communication but meanwhile we'll all still be cooking in the same inefficient way.

To me that sounds like 1950s predictions of the future showing us how mailmen will deliver letters with jetpacks. Anyone can do that kind of stupid extrapolation. But what's the equivalent of email in that scenario?

Re: The future of the human-computer interface?

#16
post #5

Anybody willing to take a bet that my keyboard is not going anywhere in my lifetime? The first time I was told that voice recognition is here and my keyboard is going away was about 20 years ago. Here I am today, still strangling to have Alexa understand simple commands. Thought controlled input? Forget about it in this lifetime.

I'm sitting on the couch on a Saturday morning with...an iPad. My keyboard is still at the office, but I don't use it as much as I used to.

Re: The future of the human-computer interface?

#17
post #5

Anybody willing to take a bet that my keyboard is not going anywhere in my lifetime? The first time I was told that voice recognition is here and my keyboard is going away was about 20 years ago. Here I am today, still strangling to have Alexa understand simple commands. Thought controlled input? Forget about it in this lifetime.

I wrote a book about speech recognition -- and I _wrote_ it, I didn't speak it. I discovered that speaking uses different mental muscles than writing does. That's fine, because some people are more comfortable with one than another (such as doctors who are happy dictating but don't want to type).

Also I remember when computer mice were new, and plenty of people said, "I can't imagine using that."

I think that's true of other types of user interface as well, from haptics to whatever comes next. Sometimes you have to envision what _could_ be, and discover from experience what reaches people... or a subset thereof.

Re: The future of the human-computer interface?

#18
post #14
post #13

"Expect the way you interact with your laptop, tablet, and smartphone to change a lot in the next five to 10 years." I am going to bet the opposite; we will interact with laptop, phones and tablets roughly in the same way as we do now in ten years. Voice control, thought control and VR headsets will be mostly a dud for anything beyond games and novelty.

We said that about touch, and now most human-computer interaction is via touch screen.

But it actually took 30 years to get there, not 5

Re: The future of the human-computer interface?

#19
post #14
post #13

"Expect the way you interact with your laptop, tablet, and smartphone to change a lot in the next five to 10 years." I am going to bet the opposite; we will interact with laptop, phones and tablets roughly in the same way as we do now in ten years. Voice control, thought control and VR headsets will be mostly a dud for anything beyond games and novelty.

We said that about touch, and now most human-computer interaction is via touch screen.

Tablets and smartphones are a new device class which increased the amount of human-computer interaction. You're implying we also mostly use touch screens on previously existing platforms like desktops, laptops, gaming consoles and TVs. Those platforms haven't changed their primary input method to touch.

Re: The future of the human-computer interface?

#20
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We said that about touch, and now most human-computer interaction is via touch screen.

Tablets and smartphones are a new device class which increased the amount of human-computer interaction. You're implying we also mostly use touch screens on previously existing platforms like desktops, laptops, gaming consoles and TVs. Those platforms haven't changed their primary input method to touch.

Nintendo DS, 3DS, 2DS, WiiU, Switch, and Sony PS Vita are all touch screen.
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