9 ms·

The future of the human-computer interface?

63 points by ohjeez 9y ago

carapace 9y ago
The interesting assumption is that people control their thoughts.
ameen 9y ago
There's a lot bandied about "Thought control" or brain controlled devices to replace existing HCIs, but many fail to realize that our input devices aren't just used for input but are tools which help us amplify our thought process.
Animats 9y ago
When a device can do all that, it won't need you.
acjohnson55 9y ago
If mere thought is input to the computer, then why should its output be presented to you as a physical stimulus? Like, why would there be a hologram telling you how to cook a recipe when it could just present itself as a hallucination? Better yet, save the time and make it seem like a memory of something you already know how to do. Or why not have the program operate your physical body directly? Or why not give you nourishment and produce the food experience completely virtually, a la The Matrix?
- icebraining 9y ago
  I'm just waiting for Transmetropolitan's TV bombs. Spending the nights dreaming with advertisements.
- davidivadavid 9y ago
  So this article wants us to believe that we're going to find revolutionary new ways of communication but meanwhile we'll all still be cooking in the same inefficient way. To me that sounds like 1950s predictions of the future showing us how mailmen will deliver letters with jetpacks. Anyone can do that kind of stupid extrapolation. But what's the equivalent of email in that scenario?
noncoml 9y ago
Anybody willing to take a bet that my keyboard is not going anywhere in my lifetime? The first time I was told that voice recognition is here and my keyboard is going away was about 20 years ago. Here I am today, still strangling to have Alexa understand simple commands. Thought controlled input? Forget about it in this lifetime.
- ohjeez 9y ago
  I wrote a book about speech recognition -- and I _wrote_ it, I didn't speak it. I discovered that speaking uses different mental muscles than writing does. That's fine, because some people are more comfortable with one than another (such as doctors who are happy dictating but don't want to type). Also I remember when computer mice were new, and plenty of people said, "I can't imagine using that." I think that's true of other types of user interface as well, from haptics to whatever comes next. Sometimes you have to envision what _could_ be, and discover from experience what reaches people... or a subset thereof.
- sspyder 9y ago
  No because you seem biased to keep it and can control the outcome of the bet. Anybody willing to take a bet that my keyboard is going to evolve radically or disappear altogether in my lifetime?
- yjftsjthsd-h 9y ago
  Mice work well. Voice recognition works well for me. I still use the keyboard for most real work. Similarly, I think we will see some degree of brain reading, but at least the first generation or two won't replace other input methods.
- seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  I'm sitting on the couch on a Saturday morning with...an iPad. My keyboard is still at the office, but I don't use it as much as I used to.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
jodrellblank 9y ago
Great, I can't wait for the voice controlled reimplementation of IRC, the augmented reality reimplementation of IRC, the holographic reimplementation of IRC, the node.js JavaScript deep learning in-browser reimplementation of holographic IRC via websockets, etc. You've been able to voice control a device and speak reminders for literally years. Plugging your smartphone into a TV to use it as a display has been a thing for at least five years since the Galaxy Note 2, probably long before that. Devices 'sending information to nearby stores' has been a thing for years with Bluetooth and WiFi sensing beacons tracking individuals. The steak/salad/spyware problem exemplified at least 4 years ago here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn7N2UiOYCk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn7N2UiOYCk "Every time I interact with a new piece of technology, I don't want to have to tell it who I am and type in all my password information. My phone will tell these devices who I am and that I'm trustworthy." Every time I interact with a new piece of technology, I don't want to have to tell it who I am, so I lie and write some bullshit in the form. My phone will not tell these devices who I am and that I'm trustworthy, whatever that means, but it probably won't have any way to lie on my behalf because it's not really "my" user agent at all, but my proxy in a for-profit exploitative system I increasingly dislike. Would devices, which connect to our advanced smartphones, share our information with the company that made them as well as advertisers? Because it's not even worth questioning whether they could, should or would share the information with advertisers, that's just implicitly assumed and accepted as fine. It's the scary "manufacturer" we should be concerned about. If a senior citizen is having memory problems, for example, instead of immediately being placed in assisted living or a nursing facility, they could use a smart headset or ear piece that act as cognitive assistants, reminding them to take their medications or to turn off the stove. [..] "At the end of the day, one of the most profoundly helpful use cases will be in elder care," says Satyanarayanan. For some definition of 'care' which involves +1 rugged American independence (tm) and absolutely no human interaction if at all possible. Your friend might say, 'Wait! You have to wait till the oil is sizzling' It will guide you in real time. It will criticize in real time. (Hi mom). "We'll get to a point where I don't have a smartphone or a laptop. The computers will just be all around us." And each one requiring an account, a login, a micropayment, a license agreement, an AUP, and tracking every interaction with it. Sweet. No, just no to all this future.
quikoa 9y ago
This reminds me of this 'Big Head' scene from Silicon Valley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jroQCyWwEgE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jroQCyWwEgE
jehna1 9y ago
I'm calling bull. I would not trust some device to read my thoughts to write them to a Word document. Random thoughts are too uncontrollable. I would not trust my phone to connect automatically to any device, I see that's a huge risk. I would not trust my computer when I talk to it. Anyone can hear the conversation and it's disturbing in public spaces to other people. We saw this happen with Google Glass. People need interfaces they can trust, that are not intrusive.
- tigershark 9y ago
  I would love to be able to write code just with my thoughts. With the keyboard is not that bad, but in certain moments feels like the main bottleneck.
  - jehna1 9y ago
    I recommend reading an article about dude who was unable to code with his hands, so he uses voice commands to code faster than with keyboard[1]. [1]: http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/using_voice_to_code.html http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/using_voice_to_code.html
  - jodrellblank 9y ago
    Switch to a more terse/dense/expressive language? If you're typing filler, maybe the language is just wasting your time?
chvid 9y ago
"Expect the way you interact with your laptop, tablet, and smartphone to change a lot in the next five to 10 years." I am going to bet the opposite; we will interact with laptop, phones and tablets roughly in the same way as we do now in ten years. Voice control, thought control and VR headsets will be mostly a dud for anything beyond games and novelty.
- DanBC 9y ago
  We said that about touch, and now most human-computer interaction is via touch screen.
  - joshmarinacci 9y ago
    But it actually took 30 years to get there, not 5
  - imtringued 9y ago
    Tablets and smartphones are a new device class which increased the amount of human-computer interaction. You're implying we also mostly use touch screens on previously existing platforms like desktops, laptops, gaming consoles and TVs. Those platforms haven't changed their primary input method to touch.
    - DanBC 9y ago
      Nintendo DS, 3DS, 2DS, WiiU, Switch, and Sony PS Vita are all touch screen.
      - leggomylibro 9y ago
        They also all have directional pads, joysticks, and tactile buttons.
  - Retra 9y ago
    Most human-computer interaction involves games and novelty-seeking.
imtringued 9y ago
A whole lot of talk with nothing to show for. The first iPhone was released 10 years ago and it was an actual product you could buy. The only concrete device they linked was https://www.technologyreview.com/s/534206/a-brain-computer-interface-that-works-wirelessly/ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/534206/a-brain-computer-i.... "Blackrock has begun selling the wireless processor, which it calls “Cereplex-W” and costs about $15,000, to research labs that study primates. Tests in humans could happen quickly, says Florian Solzbacher, a University of Utah professor who is the owner and president of Blackrock. The Brown scientists have plans to try it on paralyzed patients, but haven’t yet done so." It's incredibly expensive and they are primarily using it for animal tests. If it's so obvious that this is going to replace keyboards, etc within 10 years then show me at least one consumer product that I can buy today for less than $1000.
Pinkertron 9y ago
Just more shit to break.
harrygeez 9y ago
I have little doubts decades from now I will still be mashing code on a keyboard. Maybe not a physical keyboard but something out of Tony Stark's lab.
helpmate 9y ago
Thought controlled word documents sound very unproductive, because the moment someone is watching I'm going to worry whether I'll accidentally think about a bunch of my secrets and it's immediately going to type that and what the secrets are, all because I was simply thinking about them at all.

63 points by ohjeez 9y ago

The interesting assumption is that people control their thoughts.

There's a lot bandied about "Thought control" or brain controlled devices to replace existing HCIs, but many fail to realize that our input devices aren't just used for input but are tools which help us amplify our thought process.

Animats 9y ago

When a device can do all that, it won't need you.

acjohnson55 9y ago

If mere thought is input to the computer, then why should its output be presented to you as a physical stimulus? Like, why would there be a hologram telling you how to cook a recipe when it could just present itself as a hallucination? Better yet, save the time and make it seem like a memory of something you already know how to do. Or why not have the program operate your physical body directly? Or why not give you nourishment and produce the food experience completely virtually, a la The Matrix?

icebraining 9y ago
I'm just waiting for Transmetropolitan's TV bombs. Spending the nights dreaming with advertisements.
davidivadavid 9y ago
So this article wants us to believe that we're going to find revolutionary new ways of communication but meanwhile we'll all still be cooking in the same inefficient way. To me that sounds like 1950s predictions of the future showing us how mailmen will deliver letters with jetpacks. Anyone can do that kind of stupid extrapolation. But what's the equivalent of email in that scenario?

noncoml 9y ago

Anybody willing to take a bet that my keyboard is not going anywhere in my lifetime? The first time I was told that voice recognition is here and my keyboard is going away was about 20 years ago. Here I am today, still strangling to have Alexa understand simple commands. Thought controlled input? Forget about it in this lifetime.

ohjeez 9y ago
I wrote a book about speech recognition -- and I _wrote_ it, I didn't speak it. I discovered that speaking uses different mental muscles than writing does. That's fine, because some people are more comfortable with one than another (such as doctors who are happy dictating but don't want to type). Also I remember when computer mice were new, and plenty of people said, "I can't imagine using that." I think that's true of other types of user interface as well, from haptics to whatever comes next. Sometimes you have to envision what _could_ be, and discover from experience what reaches people... or a subset thereof.
sspyder 9y ago
No because you seem biased to keep it and can control the outcome of the bet. Anybody willing to take a bet that my keyboard is going to evolve radically or disappear altogether in my lifetime?
yjftsjthsd-h 9y ago
Mice work well. Voice recognition works well for me. I still use the keyboard for most real work. Similarly, I think we will see some degree of brain reading, but at least the first generation or two won't replace other input methods.
seanmcdirmid 9y ago
I'm sitting on the couch on a Saturday morning with...an iPad. My keyboard is still at the office, but I don't use it as much as I used to.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

jodrellblank 9y ago

Great, I can't wait for the voice controlled reimplementation of IRC, the augmented reality reimplementation of IRC, the holographic reimplementation of IRC, the node.js JavaScript deep learning in-browser reimplementation of holographic IRC via websockets, etc. You've been able to voice control a device and speak reminders for literally years. Plugging your smartphone into a TV to use it as a display has been a thing for at least five years since the Galaxy Note 2, probably long before that. Devices 'sending information to nearby stores' has been a thing for years with Bluetooth and WiFi sensing beacons tracking individuals. The steak/salad/spyware problem exemplified at least 4 years ago here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn7N2UiOYCk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn7N2UiOYCk "Every time I interact with a new piece of technology, I don't want to have to tell it who I am and type in all my password information. My phone will tell these devices who I am and that I'm trustworthy." Every time I interact with a new piece of technology, I don't want to have to tell it who I am, so I lie and write some bullshit in the form. My phone will not tell these devices who I am and that I'm trustworthy, whatever that means, but it probably won't have any way to lie on my behalf because it's not really "my" user agent at all, but my proxy in a for-profit exploitative system I increasingly dislike. Would devices, which connect to our advanced smartphones, share our information with the company that made them as well as advertisers? Because it's not even worth questioning whether they could, should or would share the information with advertisers, that's just implicitly assumed and accepted as fine. It's the scary "manufacturer" we should be concerned about. If a senior citizen is having memory problems, for example, instead of immediately being placed in assisted living or a nursing facility, they could use a smart headset or ear piece that act as cognitive assistants, reminding them to take their medications or to turn off the stove. [..] "At the end of the day, one of the most profoundly helpful use cases will be in elder care," says Satyanarayanan. For some definition of 'care' which involves +1 rugged American independence (tm) and absolutely no human interaction if at all possible. Your friend might say, 'Wait! You have to wait till the oil is sizzling' It will guide you in real time. It will criticize in real time. (Hi mom). "We'll get to a point where I don't have a smartphone or a laptop. The computers will just be all around us." And each one requiring an account, a login, a micropayment, a license agreement, an AUP, and tracking every interaction with it. Sweet. No, just no to all this future.

quikoa 9y ago

This reminds me of this 'Big Head' scene from Silicon Valley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jroQCyWwEgE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jroQCyWwEgE

jehna1 9y ago

I'm calling bull. I would not trust some device to read my thoughts to write them to a Word document. Random thoughts are too uncontrollable. I would not trust my phone to connect automatically to any device, I see that's a huge risk. I would not trust my computer when I talk to it. Anyone can hear the conversation and it's disturbing in public spaces to other people. We saw this happen with Google Glass. People need interfaces they can trust, that are not intrusive.

tigershark 9y ago
I would love to be able to write code just with my thoughts. With the keyboard is not that bad, but in certain moments feels like the main bottleneck.
- jehna1 9y ago
  I recommend reading an article about dude who was unable to code with his hands, so he uses voice commands to code faster than with keyboard[1]. [1]: http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/using_voice_to_code.html http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/using_voice_to_code.html
- jodrellblank 9y ago
  Switch to a more terse/dense/expressive language? If you're typing filler, maybe the language is just wasting your time?

chvid 9y ago

"Expect the way you interact with your laptop, tablet, and smartphone to change a lot in the next five to 10 years." I am going to bet the opposite; we will interact with laptop, phones and tablets roughly in the same way as we do now in ten years. Voice control, thought control and VR headsets will be mostly a dud for anything beyond games and novelty.

DanBC 9y ago
We said that about touch, and now most human-computer interaction is via touch screen.
- joshmarinacci 9y ago
  But it actually took 30 years to get there, not 5
- imtringued 9y ago
  Tablets and smartphones are a new device class which increased the amount of human-computer interaction. You're implying we also mostly use touch screens on previously existing platforms like desktops, laptops, gaming consoles and TVs. Those platforms haven't changed their primary input method to touch.
  - DanBC 9y ago
    Nintendo DS, 3DS, 2DS, WiiU, Switch, and Sony PS Vita are all touch screen.
    - leggomylibro 9y ago
      They also all have directional pads, joysticks, and tactile buttons.
- Retra 9y ago
  Most human-computer interaction involves games and novelty-seeking.

imtringued 9y ago

A whole lot of talk with nothing to show for. The first iPhone was released 10 years ago and it was an actual product you could buy. The only concrete device they linked was https://www.technologyreview.com/s/534206/a-brain-computer-interface-that-works-wirelessly/ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/534206/a-brain-computer-i.... "Blackrock has begun selling the wireless processor, which it calls “Cereplex-W” and costs about $15,000, to research labs that study primates. Tests in humans could happen quickly, says Florian Solzbacher, a University of Utah professor who is the owner and president of Blackrock. The Brown scientists have plans to try it on paralyzed patients, but haven’t yet done so." It's incredibly expensive and they are primarily using it for animal tests. If it's so obvious that this is going to replace keyboards, etc within 10 years then show me at least one consumer product that I can buy today for less than $1000.

Pinkertron 9y ago

Just more shit to break.

harrygeez 9y ago

I have little doubts decades from now I will still be mashing code on a keyboard. Maybe not a physical keyboard but something out of Tony Stark's lab.

helpmate 9y ago

Thought controlled word documents sound very unproductive, because the moment someone is watching I'm going to worry whether I'll accidentally think about a bunch of my secrets and it's immediately going to type that and what the secrets are, all because I was simply thinking about them at all.