Saturday, July 23, 2011

Alternate input - mouse, keyboard, touch, pen, voice, Wii Controller/Kinect

Not everybody uses computers a whole lot, nor should everybody have to. However it would be nice to have a form of interaction that makes computers more varied in their uses.
Would we want a flight simulator input that would follow our retina? A cursor that moves according to what we are looking at?

Multimedia is one thing : listening to music, watching videos, making print media, art, video production, etc. Different applications require new forms of input. Sometimes people want nothing more than a simple "Play" button. ( Sorry Moby, but I have yet to listen to any of your music since 1994.)
My mouse has a time out to save battery life. It is set at 30 minutes. I am surprised how often time goes by without me ever reaching for the mouse. ( The trackpoint may help, but even at that I like the keyboard shortcuts...)

Surely computers have been used for countless industrial applications, geographical exploration, modelisation, manufacturing, sociological studies, training etc. Would it be possible to use computers to provide us with new ways of thinking? Artificial intelligence that makes it possible for coming up with solutions while minimizing human input? Propose new ways of organizing cities, how to provide services for the physically or mentally challenged?

I visualize huge databases, detailed informations with comparison charts, advantages et les inconvénients, but it all seems too human to start with. That is fine, but where would linguistics come into play? Strict rules for input will only reflect the creators of the database. What about the margin of error to make the use of random data?

A computer that could daydream is it that far off? A computer that could dream and not forget is something that many of us wish we could be.

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