Undoubtedly one of the many TED highlights for me was a presentation by Pattie Maes. I knew I would like her - she's an "Interface Inventor". (note to self: breathe)
She works at MIT, and she talked about, amongst other things, how basically clumsy the technology we have at our disposal today really is. You might, for example, want to know which of the products in front of you in the supermarket to buy. You can see the prices, but you might want to know which is the most biodegradable; or maybe which has the highest ratings from others; or which has the best quality for price. If you were at your desk, you might google it, and even with the wonders of what even the best cell phones can do - are you really going to look up the product comparisons at the supermarket? That would be a committed (or I-have-nothing-better-to-do-with-my-time/data-plan) consumer.
MIT's answer is to bring a sixth sense into your world. This means when you're out shopping, you can look at a product, and wearing their new portable "sixth sense" around your neck (basically a phone) some choices will be projected onto that product (superimposed in real life, over that packet of toilet paper). You can point your (colour capped) finger at them and find out more. It kind of brings a tailored google onto the surface of any object you interact with.
Oh, and that's just the start. You can look out at a view and make a gesture like you are framing a photograph with your bare hands - and CLICK, it's taken for you; no fumbling in your pocket for your cell phone or camera - completely natural (if you're a film director) to hold your two hands up in the shape of a frame.
Better still, want to know the time? Look at your (bare) wrist, draw a circle on it with your finger and - bingo - there's the time superimposed on your wrist. No watch required. Similarly, any surface can become a keyboard. I have a video of the demo, which (I know) I can't upload from here. But the entire audience gasped as we saw this technology demoed. One of those TED moments.
All of this is done through (in the second picture) a portable piece of technology that you wear around your neck. It has built into it, a web cam to see what you're seeing; a projector; a mirror; a phone; oh and you have to wear coloured caps on your fingers. (I know that will be familiar to Click Suiters back home who are currently roaming the office with bits of reflective tape on their fingers for a project they are doing - and blogging about? - in gestural interfaces)
Once again, the target price for this technology is no more than a cell phone.
It may look a little clumsy (though Pattie would argue less clumsy that what we have now) but for me it was a mind blowing introduction to truly natural user interfaces that we all about to encounter.
WOW.
(PS: if you live in Wellington, and are interested to see the demo - I will be presenting it at our (internal) First Friday this week - contect Madelyn (madelyn@clicksuite.co.nz) to come along and join in on the presentation.)
