Beyond Keyboard and Mouse

We talked about interface technologies last year quite a

few times and found it really hot. Our predictions were right. We saw many new

gadgets with innovative interfaces this year, ranging from iPod generation 3,

or even the latest Windows 7 with multi-touch functionality out of the box. The

interface industry is not at all going to see stagnation in next couple of

years and we'll see many more such innovative forms of interfaces by the next

year. Before we begin, let's look at last year's score card.

Report Card — this year



As we predicted last year, multi-touch remains as a key trend this year.

Not only we saw plethora of new multi-touch phones coming into picture, but

have also witnessed the launch of Windows 7 which has inbuilt multi-touch

functionality. And as the multi-touch has become a part of the native OS, we

saw a lot of new applications coming into picture that are using the benefits

of this new interface technology. For instance, today there are quite a few

emulated musical instruments software available which use the multi-touch

functionality to give you a feel of playing a real instrument inside your

computer or phone. A Piano software for phone and Windows 7 is one of such

example which is being widely accepted today. Besides, quite a few educational

applications are also now being built around this interface.

The black strip like device with two lenses is the prototype of Xbox Natal which is supposed to make no controller gaming a reality.

The other tech which we have talked about last year was the

accelerometer and it also has proved its place this year, not just with the wide

adoption of Nintendo Wii, but with so many new phones which have come up with

accelerometer as a medium to interact. One very interesting area which has been

benefited by this technology is the sports/exercise monitoring where you can use

your phone to record and monitor your performance while exercising, running or

jogging, etc. The innovation has gone too far and we are going to see more new

and interesting applications next year.

The System with Eyes



Besides accelerator based controllers which you can move around and interact

with on your gaming consoles or PC, the next big thing is that your computer or

gaming console will have two eyes (cameras), through which they can actually

look at you and respond depending on your behavior. This means that in a gaming

console you actually don't need any controller, all you need is to just move

around your body and your hand and the system will copy your moves inside the

console.

The product which is expected sometime next year is the

Microsoft Xbox 360 Natal, which is an add-on to the exciting Xbox 360 console

This is nothing but a panel that has two camera lenses and a mic. From the

software side, presumably it's going to have facial and speech recognition

which will make the system aware of who is playing the game or who is in front

of the console. This means that, once you go in front of your console it will

automatically recognize who you are and will log in your profile instantly.

Rumors say that, this product could be available by November next year.

But, don't get disheartened by knowing that its release

date is too far. You can still get a hang of some similar technology and

products even today for your PC. These products are not that popular yet, as the

technology and adoption is new. We are sure by the beginning of the new year,

some of such applications will be available. Well, they are not yet so

sophisticated but, a lot of research and development is happening in this

front. One such product which we have tested recently is CamSpace.

This can be downloaded freely from http://www.camspace.com/.

Once you install this application, you can download some free and even paid

games from its interface and use your webcam to interact with the machine and

play games.

Not only that, you can use any colored object in your hand

to use as your default mouse or joystick or even you can download the Google

earth plug-in and use any colored object to interact with Google Earth.

An application called Camspace uses a webcam to recognize objects that can then be used in a game like this one, where we're playing football with a pen drive and plastic tumbler.

And as you can play multi-player games using two or more

colored objects in front of your camera, technically it means that, this

technology can give you multi touch interface without even the need of a touch

screen device.

We are expecting to see a lot of such products not just

for gaming but even for regular navigation for your PC, gaming console or even

for your phone. Even, if we go by some rumors, the next version of MS Windows

Mobile (Windows Mobile 7) will be having similar camera based interface for the

mobile phone, which will make it possible for the phone to detect lighting

conditions and set its profile accordingly and even will be used for regular

interface.

The ultimate interface



Last year we also talked about something called NIA or Neural Impulse

Actuator, which is a headband connected to your PC over a USB cable, and it is

able to read faint muscle twitches in your head and forehead muscles and

convert them to control signals for your PC (for playing a game or controlling

the mouse). That technology has been now widely accepted in India and is very

easily available today.

The only thing which is not making it very common in the

country is its price which is around 10 grands and the number of applications

which works with it is still limited. But the researchers have gone really wild

on this and are working on something which will become the ultimate interface of

Future.

A company called BrainGate (you can visit them at http://www.bra

ingate.com/), is working on a chip which can be implanted inside the brain of a

person and will let the person to control remote control based devices such as

TV, etc. and PCs with the help of a receiver. The first prototype of this

devices has already been tested on a human and the US Food and Drug Authority

has given permission to this company to conduct more tests on this product.

We are expecting this product to be available in less than

a decade time. The only challenge here is that, just for the sake of

controlling electronic devices more comfortably, how many people will be ready

to go through a brain operation? Indeed it can be a boon for paralyzed people,

as they will be able to control computers and devices more comfortably using

this.

Next-



Computing on the Go