Some interesting points about vision and inspiration, and how long sometimes it takes to see them realized. The part toward the bottom about the 16×16 pixel display seen in 1968 is really an impressive example.
From “A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design” by Bret Victor:
This little rant isn’t going to lay out any grand vision or anything. I just hope to suggest some places to look.
Before we think about how we should interact with our Tools Of The Future, let’s consider what a tool is in the first place.
I like this definition: A tool addresses human needs by amplifying human capabilities.
That is, a tool converts what we can do into what we want to do. A great tool is designed to fit both sides.
In this rant, I’m not going to talk about human needs. Everyone talks about that; it’s the single most popular conversation topic in history.
And I’m not going to talk about about technology. That’s the easy part, in a sense, because we control it. Technology can be invented; human nature is something we’re stuck with.
I’m going to talk about that neglected third factor, human capabilities. What people can do. Because if a tool isn’t designed to be used by a person, it can’t be a very good tool, right?
Found this on yahoo news. With the use of a Microsoft Kinect, some Grad students figured out how to project onto any surface and make that surface an input device, pretty impressive:
The day was coming for a while now, and it’s finally here, Steve Jobs is stepping down as CEO and Tim Cook the COO will take over. Looks like stocks took a bit of a hit as the news came out. Hopefully Apple won’t go the path of Microsoft after Bill Gates stepped away, but we really won’t know until he’s completely done with Apple. Steve will still be there as the Chairman of the Board so I’m sure his very necessary input will be taken
Here’s the link to the text from his resignation letter:
Thunder Cats is back baby! Found Thundercats as a trending topic off yahoo and it looks like it’s back on Cartoon Network. It’s look pretty good from what I’m seeing in this trailer:
It’s really no secret that I’m pretty obsessed with anything wedding related. (Ask my lovely co-workers who had a pool going as to when I would get an engaged.) Some call me a project manager of life, I just think I’m prepared at all times. I am equally pumped because I’ve finally found a way to tie my obsession with weddings into a blog post for LW. Here we go…
As I browse wedding websites collecting ideas and planning my upcoming nuptials, I have to give major kudos to TheKnot.com. The faceted search available on their website is second-to-none. In development speak, faceted search is simply “the ability for users to build their queries as they go, refining or expanding the current query, with results automatically reflecting the current query. ” In my world it’s “the ability for Tracy to run a search on wedding gowns from style (A-line, Mermaid, Fit-and-Flare) to price to gown length, with the search results showing me different dresses as I select and de-select these categories.” With so many wedding gown options, the faceted search is my new best friend! If your website contains a lot of information that can be separated into categories, I highly recommend installing a faceted search. Drupal, a favorite CMS tool of mine, offers an excellent module for installing such a search.
I did, in fact, say “Yes to the Dress” already…In case you’re wondering what I’ll be wearing on October 6, 2012, maybe you should try using the faceted search on TheKnot.com!
Researchers from from the Grenoble Informatics Lab in France are using the camera to track your eye gaze and change the image displayed on the tablet based on your perspective.
Eric Williamson showed me the demo of this earlier this week and this is a great use of augmented reality, unbelieveable!
“A new iPhone app known as Word Lens will translate Spanish or English phrases instantly on the screen when you point your device’s camera lens at the foreign language words.”
Just stumbled across this thing through a friend’s link the other day, and I can’t wait to start playing around with it..It is from a company called Emotiv, and is:
“a high resolution, neuro-signal acquisition and processing wireless neuroheadset. It uses a set of sensors to tune into electric signals produced by the brain to detect player thoughts, feelings and expressions and connects wirelessly to most PCs.” (from here).
It seems like it seem to work for some people better than others. There is a YouTube video (shown below) that shows someone unpacking it from the box and trying it out with the supplied demo software. Their results are a bit fuzzy as to how well it works for them, however.
Maybe the console-makers will incorporate this into their next-gen systems? It seems that Nintendo might already be planning to go down this route..Other companies, such as Canadian Interaxon are actively working to integrate thought-controlled computing into real-world scenarios, like recently at the Vancouver Winter Olympics where visitors were able to use their brainwaves to control live lightshows.
