Much To Do About Microsoft Surface

Microsoft's introduction of surface computing has caused a ruckus on the IxDa, which is the discussion board of the Interaction Design Association. There was a huge backlash on the product and I commented negatively as well. I was disappointed that already at the introduction of the product Microsoft had partnered with chain hotels and casinos to introduce the product to the public in the near future. It just shifted the focus from innovation toward selling the product. Many of the shown applications are lame like showing augmented information about the wine you are drinking right on the surface of the table...

On the other hand I really like the interaction with real objects. Using the table to share data between different devices. There is a lot of promise in that. I wonder if they could have solved the recognition problem with RFID tags instead of cameras. Cameras need distance, which makes the table bulky.

Ideas and innovation happens in synchronicity. All of a sudden a few people have the same ideas around the same time. Much of it has to do with technology moving to the next level opening up the doors for certain new ideas. 
This has happened for multi-touch. The iPhone made it popular and the time for multi touch computing is now. It's everywhere and we are going to see a lot more of it. Exciting times.

This is another example of multi-touch used for a collaboration instrument as shown at the Transmediale 2007 in Berlin



This is one of MS's cheesy ads for Surface:




http://www.microsoft.com/surface/
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/surfacecomputing/default.mspx

Neurofeedback Gaming Interfaces

Lately I've noticed a renewed interest in neurofeedback interfaces. Yahoo News reported on "mind reading toys" and mentioned Silicon Valley gaming companies such as NeuroSky Inc and Emotiv Systems Inc.



Electroencephalography, or EEG, is the basis of these technologies. It measures the brain's electrical activity through electrodes placed on the scalp. Mostly these techiques are used in clinical contexts to help patients with migranes or kids who suffer from ADD. Beyond that there have communities obsessed with neurofeedback technologies since the 60s, claiming to achieve optimized mental performance.

Steven Johnson's book Mind Wide Open from 2005 describes his own encounter with neurofeedback devices. He says: "After the initial amazement had worn off while I was playing the space game at Seiden's office, I couldn't help noticing that I couldn't control the ship with nearly as much accuracy as I could have with a joystick or a keyboard. There's a fuzziness to interaction that would be unpleasant were I actually interested in having an efficient conversation with the computer."

and

"The almost unthinkable complexity of the brain's information network is necessarily compressed down to a crude language when a machine listens to the collective rhythms of brain waves through the skull."

NeuroSky is about to unveil a headset with brainwave "dry" sensors that won't require a conducting gel to pick up brain activity.



While looking futuristic and usable I wonder how much brain activity they will be able to pick up, when scientific instruments with a lot more sensors produce "crude" results.

Emotiv Systems Inc. "Project Epoc" headset resembles more the know EEG instruments and interface wirelessly with all gaming consoles.



The company's wiki states: "Emotiv uses proprietary, patented algorithms to formulate detections of activities from the reading of EEG signals. These detections can determine a user’s expressions, feelings and thoughts." Apparently the technology picks ups the player's muscle twitches and thus facial expressions. The player's character would smile in synch with the player or "react" to the player with a range of feelings like surprise or anger. In other words interaction with an artificial intelligence.

Last but not least I found a "brainwave dance performance" on youtube. There is an introduction on how the sensors attached to the dancer work followed by pretty bad dancing:)

The Emotional iPhone Experience

Mac owners always had a more emotional relationship to their machines. That it is a great accomplishment on the part of Apple's designers. I like looking at my MacBook Pro every day! Touching it, using it is a delight. To prove my gushiness isn't rare to find amoung Mac users I'd like you to take a look at this video by Jason Ponton, Editor of The MIT Technology Review. He explains what makes a beautiful machine and his enthusiasm is a great example for the kind of emotional bond I am talking about.



Cell phones are intimate machines. We carry them close to our bodies and use them primarily to communicate, they are connectors to the world around us. I have never built that emotional relationship with any of my cell phones ( I am on my 5th phone now) . The novelty of a new phone wears off after a couple of weeks. It becomes a mere tool I expect to work. Since its features a miserably integrated I don't bother to use them. I am still doing the same few things with my phone I have always done: calling, texting and entering data into the calendar and the address book. My personal feature wish list has not changed for years. I don't need more features just a few done the right way. Nothing but sad compromises so far....

I think the iPhone will create that emotional relationship.

Why?

The integration with my Mac will be perfect. The iPhone will behave like my computer. It will be its ultra portable extension.

It will feel great in my hand, the multi-touch interface will make it feel like a real extension of my body. I will be able to directly touch and manipulate the information!

The overall success of the iPhone may depend on how well it will integrate with the Windows machines. The exclusive provider deal with AT+T is also annoying. No matter how great the iPhone is, I will not change my current phone plan for it.

I guess...

Shiira Web Browser 2.0 Released

I was looking forward to testing the Shiira browser, because the demo video featured these really nice functions:

1. Select and open multiple links in new tabs
2. Tabs Exposé feature.

Use the cursor to highlight any part of the web page, - right click and choose the "Open all Links in new Tabs" command. The drowdown menu tells you how many links you have selected, so you can gage how many tabs will open up at once.



To me that seems more useful then Safari's "Open in Tabs" bookmarks feature. Together with the new Tabs Exposé you get a key feature: quickly scan the open tabs in Exposé mode and find your information faster.



Shiira desperately needs a "close all tabs" (but the first one) command. I tried to open 40 tabs "by mistake". My hard core test could not be corrected. Closing the entire window made the browser crash - repeatedly. It does not appear to be completely stable yet.

Shiira's shelf is well organized. All bookmarks from all browsers on my machine were thoughtfully added. Unlike Firefox you don't have to choose between a bookmark or a history side panel.




download the application here.

ZUIs: Archy, Zenzui, iPhone and Deepfish

When I wrote the post about the Zenzui interface I wasn't aware of the fact that efforts have been made for a long time to develop ZUIs - Zooming User Interfaces. The idea is a desktop that is infinitely expandable in all directions, as well as zoomable to get an overview or to show detail. To my knowledge the Zooming User Interface is one part of "ARCHY", a proposed system for interacting with computers designed by Jef Raskin. He first described these ideas in his book The Humane Interface which was published in 2000.





Apple is making efforts in that direction with the introduction of virtual desktops called "Spaces" in the upcoming release of Leopard. The upcoming iPhone also uses a stylized form of ZUI. Since the iPhone will use Safari and the full web experience, Apple needed a way to pan through the information on a small screen and came up with double tapping to zoom in and out, as well as pushing/panning of the page with swipes of your finger.
Apparently Apple has beat Microsoft efforts in that area to the punch. Look at Microsoft's Deepfish (see Demo) technology. The similarities are obvious, although the navigation of the interface by joystick seems a bit clutsy.

It is always so interesting to me, that all these concepts have been around for a long while. Some companies - usually Apple - just implement them better. Then they are called innovators, but their ideas were never produced out of thin air. It's a process and many smart people have contributed.

Zenzui - Zooming User Experience and Business Model

Zenzui's user interface design has some merits - I would like to check it out. The content seems to be like widgets, rather than a navigational system for real phone applications like email, calendar etc.
I like the tiles' conceptual extention past the boundaries of the users screen resolution. Zooming in and out seems intuitive. Instead of scrolling, which on "non-iPhone" phones is cumbersome to do, they have small interface elements let you navigate in 4 directions or else zoom in or out (essentially opening and closing of widgets/apps/files).



The Zenzui business model aims to satisfy consumers, marketers, advertisers, developers and mobile operators, which means it will be a system filled with ad-crap.

In the video below zenzui sometimes seems latent and slow. The Zenzui interface has the potential to be a direct touch interface (like the iPhone it doesn't really need hardware buttons), but bends to so many different mobile manufacturers that the user experience is largely uncontrollable.

Adobe Apollo Empowers Web Developers

A post on the websector blog convinced me to rethink my remarks from yesterday on Adobe's Apollo technology. Today I realized that iTunes has been doing the same thing for years and I never once thought about the fact that content in iTunes is local as well as web content.

This in-depth article by Adobe's Michael Chambers explains what Apollo is exactly, why Apollo apps are NOT going to replace browser apps, etc.

User Interface Design at Pilotfish

Currently I am working together with Pilotfish in Munich on an exciting software project. Can't say nature of the project nor client but I am still psyched and wanted to share...