George King - 11162744
D1 - Evaluate the impact of potential future development in HCI
For this part of the assignment I will be looking at potential new technologies that could revolution our economy, society and culture. New ways in which interact with computers and devices are being developed to make it easy and more enjoyable to interact with them - plus to increase our work load.
10/GUI
This new Graphical User Interface (GUI) was created to combine multi-touch functions with new windowing operations. Users would replace the traditional mouse and keyboard set up and replace it with an interactive multi-touch screen. Here they would then be able to navigate the page and input graphical and text based information. The team who is developing 10/GUI is set to change the traditional keyboard and text based window and turn into a more graphical based GUI.
One of the reason they propose to introduce this new GUI is it may reduce strain on the arms and wrists of users - with less movement needed to operate a computer, injuries are less likely to happen. Furthermore, it also may also affect the economy due to its ability to input different types of information directly through the touch pad. This could potentially improve work output.
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| Here is how the proposed layout will look, with a user optimising the multi-touch features of the touch screen. |
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| Further, the windowed view would be expected to loom like this, here there is also an example of the multi-touch capabilities. |
Gesture Control
The most recent form of gesture control is used with the xbox, this uses a motion control interface to interact with some games. However, I feel that this technology can be used in other instances, such as in the work place, or for casual users. When the correct hardware and software technologies are combined, users would be able to have more natural and fluent control over their computer system. The hardest part to perfect this technology is not the motion capture, but how to make the interface easy for all people to use.
I feel this technology will effect society the most, as gesture control offers no real benefits for a business - however, people may use this for its fun and simple way to interact with technology. Smart televisions, games consoles and computer systems will be the first to adopt this new HCI technology. However, other devices such as light switches and other environmental devices could use gesture control systems - just by swiping your hand over the device, a light switch could be turned on. Another potential impact for people who use this technology constantly is that overall fitness levels may get better, due to movement being the source of interaction, users must move their hands or arms in order to interact with the device.
I feel this technology will effect society the most, as gesture control offers no real benefits for a business - however, people may use this for its fun and simple way to interact with technology. Smart televisions, games consoles and computer systems will be the first to adopt this new HCI technology. However, other devices such as light switches and other environmental devices could use gesture control systems - just by swiping your hand over the device, a light switch could be turned on. Another potential impact for people who use this technology constantly is that overall fitness levels may get better, due to movement being the source of interaction, users must move their hands or arms in order to interact with the device.
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| Though the gesture control has not been completely finalised, some basic instances are being developed now.
Below is another resource showing how gesture control hardware and software is used to control an operating system.
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Potential Health benefits of HCI
One concern scientist have about the future of our society is that to much exposure to screens may cause eye and brain damage. With systems becoming more readily available, and people of younger generations having access to devices, this may cause damage to our society.Today we are allready experiencing some health impacts due to computers and the way in which we interact with them; these are - These mainly include sore backs, shoulders, wrists and vision problems. More examples are listed here; http://www.ehow.com/info_8195560_potential-health-risks-due-computers.html.
More automated systems, and peoples jobs being done by machines are resulting in humans doing less physical movement as a whole than in the past. With computers becoming self aware and intelligent, computer systems will take over more of our lives - thus making us as a society progressivly more lazy.
