Pardon me a moment while I put all the Joos of the last month on simmer and concentrate it for you on one topic. Just let me ramble. Please? Thanks.
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It’s been 30 years ago that Apple launched. Listening to Steve and Bill talk last week, one of the points made is since the Mac in 1984, the GUI has only evolved. Nothing radical or different has occurred since going from command prompt to GUI. Quote: “It’s the same old crap we’ve had for the last 30 years. (Bumptop)” Actually it’s been 26 years. Rounding error. Moving on…
The same thing was mentioned to Jobs and Gates and they alluded to their companies’ strategies. I’m going to guess where they are headed.
The iPhone is coming June 29th, and with it a touch interface. This is a practical implementation of technology demonstrated by Jeff Han at TED in 2006. Since then, Jeff has additional demonstrations at his company. The hardware has been around for a while, in use by artists, but Jeff and the movie “Minority Report” and “The Island” really showed the means to make something useful and added a way to make a usable touch screen to the geek cultural lexicon (I call this the Star Trek Effect). And boy, do people love to touch their mobile device screens. So much that Apple is pursuing the technology.
So, make that one checkbox for Apple and the Jeff Han camp of touchscreen technology.
Of course, another piece of Joos indicated touch and interaction from the Microsoft side. Microsoft Surface. The user interaction seems the same, but what is really happening is a whole separate technology using video cameras to detect and sense motion and interaction. The screen is not touch sensitive, there are cameras at work. It seems the military and others are also traveling down this road of camera image recognition for a new interface. Using camera technology also has implications for teleconferencing which may be a telecom disruptor.
So, make that a separate checkbox for Microsoft and the camp of camera recognition technology. And Jeff Han (again) if he uses video cameras instead of touch.
So what?
Expect Apple to go for the touchscreen/GUI of the future in the iPhone and later with a new OS. You could argue that the tablet PC is already here, but using your hands is not the same as wielding a pen. It’s not the what but the how. Jobs loved his Newton. If the tricorder is the PDA, think of this as halfway to the HAC (just add the Sonly OLED). There is another technology demonstration out there called the Bumptop. I’m going to guess that it would align with the touchscreen future, adding physics to the experience.
The MS camp meanwhile is looking to build the Holodeck. Cameras with special and image recognition bring you into a 3D immersive world. Office roundtable will recognize who is speaking. Surface recognizes motions and items placed on it. I’d think that the Reactable for musicians falls into this camp as well.
Both of these will be slow to come, but think about how these can improve a retail experience, or maybe improve the device.
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