The future of your interaction with computers

Once again, we’re going to peel back the layers of time and peer into the murky and slightly onion scented future. Where are we going with all of this computer stuff? Where’s the pretty? and will we ever get our flying cars?

One big field in the near future is going to be the presentation of data- whether it’s through a User Interface, Human Input Device or through full sensory immersion, it’s going to be big. I’ve been hearing a lot lately (and by lately, I mean in the last month or two) about the development and research being done in the presentation of data to human beings.

Here’s a few things I think we can expect in the near-term, that is within the next 6-10 years.

Touch screens that mean something other than pushing a menu with pictures, and possibly without screens. Have you seen Minority Report? If not, go grab a copy of it and take a look if for nothing else than the way crazy Tom and his film friends manipulate data on their non-screens. The coolest thing about that effect is that it’s based on real research which is going on right now.

This has some very real implications for us the end user and how we perceive and manipulate data. The ability to move visually representative data sets with our fingers is amazing. It’s going to revolutionize how we work and play. Imagine controlling a character in a game by directing it with your hands alone. Not typing, not mousing, no joystick. Take it a step further and add a holographic display where you don’t need a touch screen to touch. Then it’s not that far of a leap to a multi-screened holographic display that can read what your body is doing. We’re getting into immersion here. What if you controlled your character by actually moving yourself?

What if you used this to enter in a pseudo-physical sense, a database. You could traverse data sets, walk up and down corridors of related information with embedded data (say videos, formula, virtual posters, documents, etc.) all hanging in front of your nose. If you think OSX, Vista and Beryl/Linux like effects are cool, you’re going to love the future of displays and data interaction.

Also coming down the pipe is a promise that we’ve been hearing about for quite some time. It’s the world of Virtual Reality. Here I’m not just talking about specialized simulators for training purposes, or highly structured worlds such as the Massive Multi-player Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) that are so popular now. I’m thinking more in line with the Metaverse straight out of Snow Crash. A place where you can plug in - through a regular old LCD monitor, or through more specialized (and expensive) equipment which will allow you to exists as a 3D avatar in a wholly and completely virtual world.

This has much broader implications than simply gaming. I’m talking about a WWW that isn’t simply links and neat applications written in AJAX. This will be a fully interactive digital world. Need info from CNN? You’ll enter their virtual domain and domicile to be treated to the data and information they have available to the public. I’ve actually been thinking and talking about this for a little while now and there are folks with PhD.’s in fields like AI and CS who are making these things a reality.

Perhaps more importantly than the research types, are the go out and do it types. Take Second Life for example. Already there are instances of news bureaus, government bureaus and honest-to-god completely virtualized businesses existing in a virtual world. This will become increasingly pervasive as time goes on. Why? Because lots of really serious people with really serious money are starting to look at these technologies and take notice.

Imagine if you will a VR web, where pages are actually structures, represented in real time and in 3D. Now add to this the innovations with displays and UI and you’re starting to see total immersion in a very realistic and doable way. Keep your eyes on this stuff, because it’s finally going to be delivered to us, starting in small and specialized ways but ever more increasingly in places like retail centers, medical facilities and massive data warehouses. When it burst through the web, we’re in for one heck of a ride, one which will change the way societies and all of their constructs operate.

As for flying cars. I had the opportunity this morning to look out of the train window at the highway as we rolled along and I can say with some confidence that I’d never share the skies with about 80% of the drivers on the road. Until autopilot is standard, there’s not going to be any flying cars for the general public. Looks like we’ll be waiting a while on that one.