This video from Microsoft is the latest one of the “future-concept” videos that are doing the rounds on the internet. It’s got some nice executions in it. Some lovely interface designs and ideas of simple and seamless connectedness.
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But it’s a lot of what we’ve seen before. And in terms of challenging our future there is one critical aspect that is missing:
Our hands feel things, and our hands manipulate things. Why aim for anything less than a dynamic medium that we can see, feel, and manipulate?
– Bret Victor in A brief rant on the Future of Interaction Design
I would recommend reading Bret’s post. It’a great tribute to, and reminder of what an incredible pair of tools our hands are, but also what limitations the ‘Picture under glass’ technologies are posing on us. As for the questions and responses he’s had this is a nice Q&A around his view.
As for previous ‘The future of…’ videos here are two more.
The future of screens
From TAT‘s Open Innovation experiment showing stretchable and transparent screens and e-ink displays amongst others.
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Amnesia Connect
Gesture based software from Amnesia Razorfish allowing instant sharing of content between hand held devices using a Microsoft Surface table
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Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dtwpuck/6369705813/
