Future Interfaces: Where We Go From Here

Posted 03/19/2010 at 5:06am | by Alan Fackler and Alex Castle

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Courier Digital Journal

Tablet computers are the next big thing, as every major hardware developer is scrambling to create the most versatile and sleek competitor for Apples iPad.  The most impressive tablet based interface so far, however, goes to Microsoft’s Courier Digital Journal, a 5X7 inch e-book that’s less than in inch thick.  The tablet, which flips open like a book, features two screens on each respective side and is governed by a pen-based, drag and drop system.  The inclusion of the pen as a tool helps set this tablet apart from HP and Samsungs entries; the footage we’ve seen thus far hasn’t shown a keyboard display of any kind.  Messages, emails, notes and web addresses are written by hand and organized in a customizable manner, much like a real journal.  The pen based interface also allows for some nifty drawing and sketching capabilities as well; tech demos showed users pulling  images of shoes from a website then radically altering their colors and shapes with a couple of quick sketches.  The Courier is expected to have a built-in camera and head phone jack for media play back, but these details have not been officially confirmed.  In fact, Microsoft has remained tight-lipped about a lot of factors, including the price and release date, offering only a vague Q3/Q4 estimate.  As it stands now, however, the Courier Digital Journal seems like it has the ingenuity to stand as a worthy opponent against Apples tyrannical rule of the tablet world. 

Skinput

Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University have recently unveiled ‘Skinput’, a user interface that transfers a digital readout on to different parts of the body.  This is done using  ‘Bio Acoustic Censors’, a system that can sense impact from finger tips and translate them into acoustic symbols and waves.  You see, every time you touch a certain part of, say, your forearm, different parts of your forearm will project different acoustic waves, based solely on bone and muscle lay out.  Skinput censors, in conjunction with a special purpose, bio acoustic arm band, can track where you touch and classify the type of impact.  Hypothetically this could be useful for a number of tasks; you could map different parts of your arm to pause, rewind, skip, or play an MP3, without having to physically press any buttons.  The potential for a truly ground-breaking interface, however, comes with the addition of a miniature projector. 

A miniature projector would allow Skinput to simulate touch screen menu projections, allowing the user to tap different parts of the arm to visually navigate a series of menus.  As miniature projectors rapidly become smaller and more portable, navigating through an entire interface on the surface of your arm could be closer than we may think.  

Sixth Sense

Quite possibly the most impressive and technologically innovative device we’ve seen this year, Pranav Mistrys ‘Sixth Sense’ device is hard to consolidate into one word, much less one sentence.  The device is split into three parts:  a pocket projector, a mirror, and a camera, all of which are coupled into a small, wearable pendant.  Mistry’s ultimate goal is to take the features and internet connectivity of so many mobile devices and shrink it into a projection based interface that could be used anywhere, on any surface. 

The software is programmed to trace hand gestures, which communicate with the interface via colored markers on the tips of the users fingers.  These finger tip controls, known as fiducials, act as an interactive instrument between the user and the projection, no matter what surface.  The built in software is programmed to recognize various shapes and gestures communicated by the fiducials; drawing the ‘@’ symbol connects the user to web mail, drawing a magnifying glass will take the user to a map of his or her current location.  Touching the fiducials together in a square motion instructs them to act as a camera, so photos can be taken on the fly, wherever you are, then browsed through and enlarged on any nearby wall.  You can even draw a circle on your wrist to project an analog watch. 

Early tech demos showed some far more sophisticated uses for the device.  Using his fiducials, Mistry was able to grab a picture from a piece of paper (yes, literally grab a flat image, watch the video) and transfer it onto the projection with a quick and easy pinch of the fingers.  In a much more extreme case, Mistry projected  a racing game onto an ordinary piece of paper, and steered the driver by tilting it.