New Media Mantra

Science fiction fans among you will like this one.. You’ll no doubt be familiar with the way Minority Report, The Matrixes and Perhaps even Vernor Vinge are treating interfaces.

Immersive but also on demand – in the future, we will not be constrained by clunky screens (according the these visions anyway..).

Imagine being able to simply look at an object to Google it. Imagine being able to private message someone by looking at them. Or call up their linked in or Facebook profile by looking at them.

Impossible?

Odds are you’re carrying a computer in your pocket which is more powerful than your desktop was 5 years ago. Your phone is already capable of wireless comms, right?

The main problem is display.

University of Washington have just made a breakthrough that is taking us very strongly into this future.

 

 In short, this is a contact lens which contains a circuit and a number of LEDs - a rudimentary display. All it needs is power and theyre working on that.

Once in a while, the future comes knocking and concerning user interfaces at least, it just has.

Jeff Han, a research scientist at New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences is pioneering the future.
Watch This and you’ll see what I mean.

Sure, we have touch screens all over the place but they generally only recognise one point of contact at one time. They’re also fragile and relatively clumsy to use.

The new multi-touch approach changes things slightly. Given that the technology requires a fair amount of kit behind the screen, it’s unlikely we will see multi touch (of this type) on phones and laptops any time soon but take the technology to a wall or a desk and things get interesting.

After watching the video, my (beloved) laptop stared to feel very clunky..

Written: On the sofa.