DailyDirt: Who Needs A Mouse And Keyboard Anymore?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Tech news headlines often imply that a new gadget will completely kill off older devices by making them obsolete. Tablets were supposed to "kill" the PC, but that hasn't happened. On the other side of the spectrum, some folks have suggested that no tool ever completely dies. However, that's an extreme position, too. Innovation involves a succession of minor improvements, and occasionally, there are advances that are so significant that people can't help but try to explain the shifts in exaggerated black-and-white terms. The actual story is usually much more complex. We're getting more and more cool input methods beyond simple keyboards, and here are just a few nifty gadgets that probably won't replace keyboards (or mice) but might make human-to-computer communication a bit easier for people.

• The Sprout by HP is a PC with a novel interface that uses a camera, a projector and a touchmat (but it can also use a keyboard and mouse). Similar user interfaces have been proposed before (eg. 10/GUI), and sci-fi movies are always promoting floating gesture UI systems that replace keyboards and mice. [url]
• HaptoMime is a mid-air touch interaction system that uses floating images from a holographic display and provides haptic feedback to mimic a touchscreen interface. The focused ultrasound aimed at your fingertips looks cool -- but also a little bit strange and probably something you'd have to use for a bit to get accustomed to. On the other hand, no more greasy fingerprint-covered touchscreens, yay! [url]
• The SideSwipe system provides a gesture recognition system for mobile phones. It's far from perfected, however. It has an accuracy rate of about 87% for 14 different gestures, but it doesn't require a camera -- it relies on wireless signal reflections off a user's hand. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: 10/gui, gesture recognition, haptic feedback, haptomime, hmi, holographic display, input devices, sideswipe, sprout, touchscreen, ui, user interface
Companies: hp