10 interactive user interfaces for the future
We have already seen an array of user interfaces, ranging from the mouse and keyboards to touchscreens, gestures and multitouch. But the future is still nowhere neigh. There are still more unique, interactive and futuristic user interfaces to be seen and reckoned with, because only a good user interface can bring out a great user experience. Here, we have compiled a list of top 10 interactive user interfaces that give us a glimpse at what is yet to come in the genre, down miss the jump.
The skin-based interface dubbed the Skinput will get touchscreen flashing onto a user’s hands and arms. The interface being developed by Chris Harrison from Carnegie Mellon University with Dan Morris and Desney Tan at Microsoft’s research lab uses a micro-sized pico projector and an acoustic detector which detects ultra-low frequency sounds generated by finger tapping on the skin. The projector embedded in an armband beams a keyboard, menu and other graphics onto the user’s forearm and hand, while the acoustic detector stationed in the armband senses the icon which the user touches. The included software then matches the sound frequencies with specific skin locations letting the interface identify the skin button (the icon on the skin) being pressed. The Skinput can well identify gestures even when the body is in motion, and as we learn, can also support wireless applications like Bluetooth for connectivity with electronics.
• Water-based touchscreen interface
Brainchild of Taichi Inoue, dubbed the Minamo “Surface of water” in Japanese, this touchscreen interface on water surface uses a tank of water, light, camera and LCD monitor to create a pretty simple touch input device.
Sean Gustafson of Potsdam University’s Hasso Plattner Institute, Germany visions an imaginary interface which’ll allow the users to imagine and use their own graphical interface to navigate a device (or will it be a device at all) instead of relying on the touchpad, mouse, buttons or screens etc. to navigate preconfigured options on a display. Unlike any interface ever before, Sean’s imaginary interface would use a two-inch square camera based device to be worn on the chest, while a ring of LEDs would be used to project infrared light to let the camera interpret gestures. Using this system, a user can imagine a personal interface.
Scott Saponas, a Ph.D. student at the University of Washington, has developed what he calls a muscle-computer interface, which along with other things allows the user to play Guitar Hero without a guitar. This lets you control the electronic devices without the need for physical touch, just like the other gestural interfaces of course, the difference here is that EMG electrodes directly sense the electrical signals in the arms to detect finger movements which mimic the button presses.
• Microsoft’s transparent interface
The transparent glass interface from Microsoft Research lets the body to be used as a control mechanism, which recognizes inputs through touch-free gestures and eye-tracking. The content can be manipulated with the help of voice commands or some other notable hand gestures, and in case you’re concentrating too much on something particular, the computer interface can automatically enlarge the same based on the eye-tracking technology.
The in-air gesture input interface developed by researchers at Tokyo University is what you may be eyeing as a solution for touchscreens. The in-air movements of the finger are translated into commands by a high-frame-rate 3D camera, letting the user operate the portable device without a touch.
• Pressure-sensing touchscreen interface
Using what’s called the quantum tunneling composite (QTC), that relies on a 75-micrometer technology, Paratech has developed a cost effective pressure-sensing touchscreen interface which differentiates between gentle touch and a hard poke. Paratech’s sensors placed on the perimeter of the touchscreen display very efficiently detect where — and how hard — the screen is being pressed, and thereby responds accordingly to it. The pressure-sensors need no power in a static state, and are good to respond to only 2mm response from the user.
Tom Gerdhardt’s has got child’s play to be an all new process of computing. For this he’s got a mud computer made, wherein everything from UI to display is a giant pile of wet mud. Dubbed the Mud Tub, this is an organic experiment interface which allows the user to control a computer while playing in mud. The entire concept is set up in a tub filled in wet mud, which when you’re playing in by sloshing, squishing, molding, digging or punching, understands what the user and mud are doing and therefore, lets the user control games, simulators, expressive tools and computer as a whole in a new and completely organic way.
• Gesture-sensing hologram interface
Samsung is using the D’strict designed gesture-sensing hologram interface to promote its latest Smartphone, the Samsung Jet. This Minority Report-styled communication pattern has become so frequent in the real sci-fi world that the real world has suddenly found itself catching up. “The results of the interface are impressive for their total immersion, though you can tell there’s a significant lag between gesture and response.” Like a true veteran, Samsung claims the gesture-sensing hologram to be the first in the world.
Guger Technologies got the first commercial brain computer interface Intendix to exhibit at CeBIT 2010. Being commercialized strictly for patients suffering from locked-in syndrome and other communication-impairing conditions, the Intendix opens doors for the first commercial BCI that’ll send us dumping our keyboards and mice. Priced at $12,000 per unit, the Intendix has an easily usable interface which can be learnt in under 10 minutes of training. To use the Intendix, a cap with EEG sensors has to be worn by the patient. Then concentrating on a grid of letters that flashes on the screen the user can type the word he wants. Getting used to the system, the patients will be able to type 1 letter per second, the seed the interface can manage.
