The Human Interaction

By AZAM on March 11, 2008

Some very cool technology is coming out that previous seen as science fiction that will change how we use and interact with technology. The new technologies tack advantage our visual sense in applications for better results. Individuals will interact with technology and will use different interfaces than sitting down in front of the desk top with the mouse. The user interface is changing from simple GUI into more visual intuitive and greater level of human interaction of sense.

Recent successes in the design have reached the commercial markets and have changed the perception of the future and what is possible. Previous industrial computing designs have been more factor of design of commodity machines for mass production and with a more skillful operator in mind. The result was a lack of personalization and human element to the machine. Xerox PARC and Apple brought in a more human and ergonomic approach to design to computing. The efforts lead to more creativity and productivity in design and function of computing. The design and form factor has taken a new level of importance and is highly rewarded in the marketplace. Recent success stories of the Apple iPod & iPhone and the Nintendo wii show the difference in interface change the rules of the game in the market.

On the Surface

Science fiction in the Minorty Report is becoming a more of a reality. Research has moved into actual products that take advantage of tactile application to manipulate control over display screens. Applied Minds came out with a Table Top that showed off the capabilities of Google Earth in very appealing manner of display. Microsoft displayed similar efforts in Surface technology that take advantage of tactile touch to manipulate the screen and operate commands. Bill Gates mentioned recently A number of display technologies are able to manipulate by touch, sense, and voice commands.

Easy on the Eyes

Cool Iris Pic Lens

Pic Lens is a browser tool that allows you to view photos in more immersion view that is a better experience. The environment created is moving wall of pictures that makes viewing experience much more pleasurable. A number of individuals describe the experience “apple” like browsing (cover flow). The viewing process flows better and ability to visual experience the images while viewing or selecting images of interest. The application also has the ability to search photo based on tags. The plugin tool bar work on most browsers and bets viewed on sites that supported (Google, Yahoo!, Smugmug, Flickr, DeviantArt, and Photobucket) directly from within PicLens. It is a great tool for Fickr users to viewing large numbers of photos and easily downloads pictures automatically and enjoys a full screen experience. The company is being backed by KPCB

Searching for a better Solution

Searchme is another interesting company that allows you to search visually and improves category refinement. The results from search are displayed visually as web pages rather than a text result which you would have to click on and visit the site. The search interface allows you to move through web pages easily in a viewer format. The search user interface operates a similar manner as apple’s coverflow and provides search results in category result in text format to more quickly.

Searchme sorts your search results into relevant topics, then lets you scroll through and preview the web pages associated with your query, before you click through. As you start typing, category icons appear that relate to your search. Searchme allows you to view full web pages as results and select the most relevant result. The company worked with adobe to develop some of the interface efforts. The company is backed by Sequoia and has raised 31M to date.

(Specifically: $400,000 in Series A financing from Sequoia in July of 2005; $3.6 million in Series B funding from Sequoia in January of 2006; $12 million in Series C funding from Sequoia and DAG Ventures in June of 2007; and $15 million in Series D funding from Lehman Brothers, DAG and Sequoia in October of 2007.)

The efforts to improve the way we interact with machines will improve as computing power improves and relevant technologies become much cheaper to put together. The user interface will likely evolve to take advantage of wider range of senses to provide an efficient and effective method of controlling applications. Some have pointed to voice and gesture to prompt computing tasks as future methods of interaction with devices. Certainly, we will need more effort to improve current methods and force the industry to move ahead.

Also, different formats and set of tasks may require more than one method to address problems. Right now, Google maybe the best search engine for overall search, but new mediums of media and devices maybe require different approaches. The visual media is an example where search may improve upon both in the image and video for better results. Also, the wireless device has different environment and set of problems to address, and companies have designed search specifically for mobile. The user interface and search engines are still early in their development and will dramatically change and improve over time.

 

Categories : Tech
Tags : , , , , , ,
LEAVE A COMMENT

Close
E-mail It