3 ms·

This quote from the article made me think immediately of the 'motion trackers' as used in the Aliens films, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yNOT6lWedA https://

by Luyt 12y ago

This quote from the article made me think immediately of the 'motion trackers' as used in the Aliens films, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yNOT6lWedA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yNOT6lWedA "The radars work like finely tuned motion detectors, using radio waves to zero in on movements as slight as human breathing from a distance of more than 50 feet. They can detect whether anyone is inside of a house, where they are and whether they are moving."

logfromblammo 12y ago
For the speculative future sake of humanity, if you ever work on the GUI for one of those things, make sure it has an elevation indicator. More than 1m below the detector, show a downward-pointing triangle. More than 1m above it, show an upward-pointing triangle. Within 1m, show a square. Change the relative size of the icon according to the size of the moving object. Add telltale lines extending from the center of the icon in a contrast color to show direction of motion and speed. I realize that the shortcomings of the device UI were critical to the dramatic tension, but whenever I see that scene in Aliens, I can't help but sympathetically think about the poor military-industrial-complex gadget developer who wasn't even allowed to think about the user experience, because the requirements were determined by someone who would likely never use it, and cast in concrete long before anyone was hired to implement them. And the thing that really kills me is that the person who created those requirements probably based them on a device seen in a sci-fi movie. This is why it is so important for film directors to employ technical consultants whenever they include gadgets and computer monitors. Anything seen on the big screen will have an ongoing and possibly unintended future influence on design.

3 ms·

This quote from the article made me think immediately of the 'motion trackers' as used in the Aliens films, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yNOT6lWedA https://

by Luyt 12y ago

logfromblammo 12y ago
For the speculative future sake of humanity, if you ever work on the GUI for one of those things, make sure it has an elevation indicator. More than 1m below the detector, show a downward-pointing triangle. More than 1m above it, show an upward-pointing triangle. Within 1m, show a square. Change the relative size of the icon according to the size of the moving object. Add telltale lines extending from the center of the icon in a contrast color to show direction of motion and speed. I realize that the shortcomings of the device UI were critical to the dramatic tension, but whenever I see that scene in Aliens, I can't help but sympathetically think about the poor military-industrial-complex gadget developer who wasn't even allowed to think about the user experience, because the requirements were determined by someone who would likely never use it, and cast in concrete long before anyone was hired to implement them. And the thing that really kills me is that the person who created those requirements probably based them on a device seen in a sci-fi movie. This is why it is so important for film directors to employ technical consultants whenever they include gadgets and computer monitors. Anything seen on the big screen will have an ongoing and possibly unintended future influence on design.