18 posts tagged “user interface”
The Morph is a concept device designed by Nokia and the United Kingdom's University of Cambridge that explores the future of portable gadgetry when married with nanotechnology, and its creators really went wild. It can take various shapes such as a tablet, handset, headset and wristwatch — thanks to the morphing nano-bits composing it — and has an impressive, unheard of list of features: it's self cleaning, durable, changes the feel of its surface to your liking, and is covered with grass-like fibers that absorbs energy from the sun. The fibers also allow it to "sense" the world around it, providing you with information about your surroundings.
From the press release:
Nokia and University of Cambridge launch the Morph – a nanotechnology concept device
New York, US and Espoo, Finland — Morph, a joint nanotechnology concept, developed by Nokia Research Center (NRC) and the University of Cambridge (UK) - was launched today alongside the “Design and the Elastic Mind” exhibition, on view from February 24 to May 12, 2008, at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Morph features in both the exhibition catalog and on MoMA’s official website.
Morph is a concept that demonstrates how future mobile devices might be stretchable and flexible, allowing the user to transform their mobile device into radically different shapes. It demonstrates the ultimate functionality that nanotechnology might be capable of delivering: flexible materials, transparent electronics and self-cleaning surfaces.
Dr. Tapani Ryhanen, Head of the NRC Cambridge UK laboratory, Nokia, commented: “We hope that this combination of art and science will showcase the potential of nanoscience to a wider audience. The techniques we are developing might one day mean new possibilities in terms of the design and function of mobile devices. The research we are carrying out is fundamental to this as we seek a safe and controlled way to develop and use new materials.“
Professor Mark Welland, Head of the Department of Engineering’s Nanoscience Group at the University of Cambridge and University Director of Nokia-Cambridge collaboration added “Developing the Morph concept with Nokia has provided us with a focus that is both artistically inspirational but, more importantly, sets the technology agenda for our joint nanoscience research that will stimulate our future work together.”
The partnership between Nokia and the University of Cambridge was announced in March, 2007 - an agreement to work together on an extensive and long term programme of joint research projects. NRC has established a research facility at the University’s West Cambridge site and collaborates with several departments – initially the Nanoscience Center and Electrical Division of the Engineering Department – on projects that, to begin with, are centered on nanotechnology.
Elements of Morph might be available to integrate into handheld devices within 7 years, though initially only at the high-end. However, nanotechnology may one day lead to low cost manufacturing solutions, and offers the possibility of integrating complex functionality at a low price.
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Software giant Microsoft unveiled some of its future technology at its fourth annual Innovation Day in Brussels on December 4.
And from virtual family organizers to tabletop touch-screens, their vision of the future sees technology move from the traditional desktop computer to become seamlessly integrated in all aspects of our lives.
One key area that's set to change, says Microsoft, is user interface. MD of Microsoft Research, Cambridge, Andrew Herbert told CNN, "Sitting at a keyboard with a screen in front of us is an old-fashioned view of computing. Technology is going to be around us, it's going to be much easier to use."
Developments in touch-screen technology have resulted in large screens that can be used by multiple people, creating table-top tools for collaboration at work. And along with touch-screens, voice recognition will make our interaction with computers much more natural.
Herbert told CNN, "Interactive surfaces are making it easier for people to use computers with gesture and touch. It will make it easy for people to collaborate together. Speech will be an important part of that, too."
"We'll think less of one person, one computer," he continued. "It'll be people working together in an environment with lots of computers that you can interact with."
Touch-screens will also play a role in the home, according to the Microsoft-funded "Living Tomorrow" project. They showed off a large electronic touch-screen family organizer integrated into the wall of a fridge, which included shopping lists and menus compiled from product bar codes, a family calendar and virtual sticky notes.
Smashing Magazine showcases some of today's UX of the future:
A Vizoo’s product which can change our understanding of 3D for always.
Reactable is a collaborative electronic music instrument with a tabletop tangible multi-touch interface. Several simultaneous performers share complete control over the instrument by moving and rotating physical objects on a luminous round table surface.
Multi-Touch-based devices accept input from multiple fingers and multiple users simultaneously, allowing for complex gestures, including grabbing, stretching, swiveling and sliding virtual objects across the table. While touch sensing is commonplace for single points of contact, multi-touch sensing enables a user to interact with a system with more than one finger at a time, as in chording and bi-manual operations.
Multi-Touch is also the core of Microsoft Surface, an interactive tabletop which allows a user, or multiple users, to manipulate digital content by the use of natural motions, hand gestures, or physical objects by putting them on the surface.
Using photos of oft-snapped subjects (like Notre Dame) scraped from around the Web, Photosynth creates breathtaking multidimensional spaces with zoom and navigation features that outstrip all expectation.
Veni, vidi, vici--I came, I saw, I conquered. So proclaimed Julius Caesar after his swift and decisive victory at the Battle of Zela.
If only the battle for better user interfaces could be won so easily. The problem is, electronic products today are becoming incredibly complex. Device manufacturers, whether they’re building massive routers or miniature MP3 players, are constantly adding more functionality in an ongoing effort to outflank the competition. It’s a battle of “mores”--more features, more megapixels, more connectivity options--and it’s creating products that people find harder and harder to use.
Ask yourself, when was the last time you truly mastered a television remote? Or a cellphone? And if you did, how much of your life (and patience) did you lose in the process? And what about the products that you or your company have created? Do your customers find them easy to learn and use?
The Reactogon is an innovative music sequencer that uses coded discs placed on top of a multi-touch surface to make music.It is an instrument which uses a large tabletop multi-touch interface to create music sequences in real time.
The creators of the Reactogon call it a “chain reactive performance
arpeggiator”, which dynamically shifts its patterns and sequences based
on coded discs placed on the flat-panel interface.
Robert Cravotta, Technical Editor of Electronics Design, Strategy, News has a great article on the evolution of gesture interfaces now being used in everything from games and phones to industrial systems.
At a glance:
- Many of the gesture interfaces we see in innovative products can trace their roots back several decades.
- Gesture interfaces find more use than just in games and infotainment devices; they also control systems in industrial and medical environments.
- Much of what makes a gesture interface reliable and useful, such as inferring or predicting intent, is not obvious to the user.
- The success of an interface is in how well it handles uncertainty with the user.
- Devices with modern interfaces must consider how to manage wireless and network connectivity between systems so that they appear as one system to the user.
[via Core77]
Marc Ecko wants to promote his roots and love for graffiti. Digital citylights are created that consists of an LCD and a bluetooth interface. People will get the possibility to access the citylight via bluetooth with their cell phones and spray their own graffiti with the cursor of their phone.
Advertising School: Design Factory International, Hamburg, Germany
Tutor: Michael Hoinkes (He Said She Said)
Creative: Benjamin Busse
[via Ads of the World]
The three key technology themes identified by Gartner are:
- Web 2.0: The community, technology and business innovations of the web continue to evolve. Specific approaches and technologies have progressed since last year's edition, including wikis, mashups, enterprise RSS, social network analysis and collective intelligence. The product and platform underpinnings have been more tightly defined in the 2007 hype cycle, with entries for web platforms and Web 2.0 workplace technologies.
- User Interfaces: After many years of stagnation, a number of emerging user interface technologies are entering serious commercialisation, including electronic paper (for mobile devices and signage), gesture recognition (as incorporated in the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Surface) and virtual environments/virtual worlds (such as Second Life). Other interface technologies, such as ambient and glanceable displays, are still being used experimentally to establish their role and utility.
- Mobile: Mobile and wireless technologies, devices, and services continue to be an active area for emerging technology groups. Areas such as RFID, sensor networks, and location-aware technologies and applications continue to mature slowly, but still offer both near-term and long-term promise as high-impact technologies.
The post-Vista edition of Windows doesn't yet have a name, but it's got a date - 2010 - and it's getting a fresh look.
The former was revealed at Microsoft's Global Exchange sales conference in Orlando last week, according to Windows watcher Mary Jo Foley. Foley cites a PowerPoint presentation indicating that "Microsoft is anticipating it will take at least three years from now to get the next version of Windows client out the door." A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to Foley that " Microsoft is scoping Windows ‘7' development to a three-year timeframe, and then the specific release date will ultimately be determined by meeting the quality bar."
A comprehensive article on Surface by Nick Hampshire of ZDNet UK.
At The Wall Street Journal's D: All Things Digital conference earlier this year, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer surprised everyone by unveiling a new product called simply "Surface", a product that the company describes as being "the first in a new category of products that offers users a completely intuitive and liberating way to interact with digital content, and blurs the lines between the physical and virtual worlds".
