This is cool. Oblong Industries has developed an operating system, or “spatial operating environment,” called g-speak. If you’ve seen the Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg film, Minority Report, g-speak will look familiar. Check out this impressive demonstration:
g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.
Pretty amazing, huh? The visual impact of this human computer interaction is brilliant on film—visually stunning and dramatic. But, is this style of interface and interaction really the future of user interface design? I doubt it. Remember movies like Hackers, The Net or countless others where directors have attempted to dramatize mouse clicks and typing? Computer interaction usually falls short on screen. In Minority Report, typing and mouse gestures were replaced by pantomime and flying screens. Tom Cruise looked more like the conductor of a symphony orchestra than a geek parked in front of a PC. On film it works. In real life… save the drama for your mama.
Practically speaking, the Minority Report-style OS falls short. Can you imagine gloved cube dwellers pointing and waving their arms around at data for six to ten hours a day? Not to mention, the sheer size of the screens.
I anticipate that the mouse will likely be obsolete in the near future; highly interactive touch screens are already ubiquitous. I also predict that speech-recognition, eye-movement-detection and even the ability to control machines through thought will be the true interactions of the future. Sure, watching someone talk to, stare and blink at a computer won’t look great on film, but it will make our lives more efficient. And the technology that can make our lives/jobs more efficient through great interaction design will truly be the UI of the future.
