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Human Interface
I think the next big step in the computing world should be a revolution in the way that people interact with their computers. The mouse and keyboard are becoming too old, and its about time that someone out there thinks of a new way of interaction. Any suggestions?
I think the next big step in the computing world should be a revolution in the way that people interact with their computers. The mouse and keyboard are becoming too old, and its about time that someone out there thinks of a new way of interaction. Any suggestions?
The point and click interface has dominated because it was infintitely more intuitive than typing in commands at a prompt. However, new technologies such as voice recognition have failed to properly take off due to reliability problems and the fact that it takes longer to acheive the same effects as using a mouse and keyboard. If we are all comfortable and efficient the way we currently use computers, why change it for the sake of it? Or to cliche, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".ph8te said:
10.4 will be revolutionary. So will Longhorn (although everything will have been done in Mac OS beforehand by the time it arrives). So far we have heard rumours of a new file structure and possible 3D desktops (which I'm not so sure about) making it into Tiger (or whatever).
johnnyjibbs said:
So, if the consensus is i"if it ain'tz broke, don't fix it", why do so many companies strive to enhance their products. Yes, and the point and click method is the most intuitive that i can think of, that's why I was asking about new ideas. When the world of VR emerged 10 or more years ago, the movies and all the projections gave us a taste of what would be possible. remember the way keanu Reeves interacted in "Jhonny Mnemonic", now that is not neccesarily the best way to interact for some tasks, but i would like to hear about stuff like that, because it shows that there are still some people out there who are innovative.
Sure, I'm not saying "lets not innovate" because things can always be improved upon. There may be something that eventually replaces the mouse and keyboard, but I can't see that having mass acceptance for a long time yet. It's taken 20 years to get the average person used to a mouse and keyboard and the GUI.
The failure of VR sort of illustrates my point. But it was a nice try. Innovation is great
The failure of VR sort of illustrates my point. But it was a nice try. Innovation is great
Well the mouse is going to be around for a good while, becouse it's so simple to use and so little effort is needed by the user to move it around.....I mean I can sit at my desk and my whole body will be still and just my wrist is moving the mouse, compare this to the (very cool) Jonny Mnemonic (however you spell it) or Minority Report and you'll see that there is a lot of body movement involved, Can you imaging holding your arms in the arm for large expanses of time accuratly, just try holding one arm in the air for a while and it will begin to hurt (mild) after a while.
Yes the Minority Mnemonic method of interaction would be extreamly cool and I've actually sat here in the office moving my arms in the air imagining what it would be like. For short periods of time it would be great and could lead to a whole new OS visualisation method(3D) although not nessisarily.
Just my two cents.
Yes the Minority Mnemonic
method of interaction would be extreamly cool and I've actually sat here in the office moving my arms in the air imagining what it would be like. For short periods of time it would be great and could lead to a whole new OS visualisation method(3D) although not nessisarily.Just my two cents.
Too much movement
I totally agree that for general work there is no beating the mouse, or a similar pointing device, but for interactive purposes, be it games, file management, chat, internet surfing and such like and interactive VR-System would be really cool.
I totally agree that for general work there is no beating the mouse, or a similar pointing device, but for interactive purposes, be it games, file management, chat, internet surfing and such like and interactive VR-System would be really cool.
carletonmusic said:
You can already have voice commands and if you spend the time and effort they're apparently quite good. I say apparently becouse I have neither the time or the effort.
ph8te said:
Well that one's obvious: sales. A company doesn't last long if it can't keep selling products. But a lot of companies are running into slumps now precisely because as you improve your products, fewer and fewer people will see the need to pay for the new version since any "enhancements" are probably considered unneeded features in most peoples' minds.
I think the main "problem" with your question is that the first part is from a consumer standpoint while the second half is the perspective of the company who's trying to part the consumer from his/her cold hard cash. Most of us don't go out saying "please add enhancements to your products, because we want to give you more money!"
rdowns said:
Tuesday! Always Tuesday!
Anyway, the original poster was looking for OS rumors, not wishes and wants. Well I heard from a guy in my office who has a sister in Texas whose neighbor raises Longhorn cattle who said that OS X 10.4 will feature at least one new desktop picture. A 4-bit color 800x600 pixel knock-off should be available for Windows wallpapering at least a month before Longhorn is released. Which, in turn, is scheduled to coincide with the development of faster-than-light travel. Yeah!
ph8te said:
An eye-recognition system, combined with VR, would be useful. E.g., look at a link and say "link" to go to it. But that's years off.
What's surprised me is that the keyboard hasn't really improved. Apple should design a new keyboard with additional keys for controlling the iApps. It's not novel--some PCs have keys for extra things--but good integration would be helpful. And they could include those little plastic overlays for each iApp (well, at least iMovie and iDVD). For example, separate volume up/down buttons. Play, skip, etc. Crop/rate. I don't know, surely there are marginal improvments.
phreakout13 said:
i think you might mean longhorn and that is m$ next oppearating system that is supposedly amazing but i somehow doubt it and as it stands it is going to be released in 2005..no 2006..oh wait a min...2008...oh go on then i will say 2015
There's a very, very good reason voice recognition for the most part hasn't, and never will, take off: It might be very fast to say "computer: open 2001 totals spreadsheet", but there's no way in hell I'm going to sit in front of my computer all day talking to it. My wife would drive me insane during the day, any wall-less office would be a cacophony of commands, and I'd keep my wife up all night mumbling to my computer. I don't think so. Heck, there are times I've used a pen and tablet as a pointing device because clicking the mouse made too much noise.
And as TBR pointed out, I don't want some fancy floating 3D os, even if it was physically possible, because I certainly don't want to sit here waving my arms around all day--programmers would all have huge, beefy arms, and being tired after a day at the office would take on a whole new meaning. Tylenol sales would skyrocket, though, and you'd have special "programmer bicep toning" courses at the gym.
Besides, if you just want to point and drag on a physical screen, you can easily do that now with a touchscreen if you want to spend the money.
A combination of eye focus and mental control (look at icon, think "click and hold", drag it with your eyes to a new spot, think "let go") might work, though I still wonder about long-term eyestrain.
If anything, the next advance for the OS would be layering, making use of two and a half dimensions to organize windows and data on the screen. This is already starting to pop up a bit in things like Expose and MS's Longhorn demos.
As for actual rumors, sorry, nothing but speculation right now.
And as TBR pointed out, I don't want some fancy floating 3D os, even if it was physically possible, because I certainly don't want to sit here waving my arms around all day--programmers would all have huge, beefy arms, and being tired after a day at the office would take on a whole new meaning. Tylenol sales would skyrocket, though, and you'd have special "programmer bicep toning" courses at the gym.
Besides, if you just want to point and drag on a physical screen, you can easily do that now with a touchscreen if you want to spend the money.
A combination of eye focus and mental control (look at icon, think "click and hold", drag it with your eyes to a new spot, think "let go") might work, though I still wonder about long-term eyestrain.
If anything, the next advance for the OS would be layering, making use of two and a half dimensions to organize windows and data on the screen. This is already starting to pop up a bit in things like Expose and MS's Longhorn demos.
As for actual rumors, sorry, nothing but speculation right now.