LIFE AS A HUMAN

Human Gestures Meet User Interfaces for SciFi-Like Results: TED Talk

In the digital world, we humans have been spending a lot of time on improvements in hardware, networking speeds and application development but not quite as much effort on the interface to our digital experience. We can still generally be found sitting still in front of screens with which we interface with keyboards and mice (or index fingers and thumbs on iPads).

Things are going to change. Humans may soon have access to an amazing user interface based on the one showcased in the Tom Cruise movie Minority Report, a science fiction film that is seeming less and less like science fiction every day.

In his recent TED Talk, John Underkoffler, the visionary user interface designer who was a technical/science advisor for Minority Report, demonstrated g-speak, “the real-life version of the film’s eye-popping, tai chi-meets-cyberspace computer interface.” Underkoffler’s g-speak is called a gestural interface system. It wowed Minority Report director Steven Spielberg, the movie’s director, and it wowed audiences who began to see the future of the user interface or UI.

After Minority Report was released, Raytheon, a company which specializes in the use of technology in homeland security and communication and intelligence systems, became very interested in what John Underkoffler had designed. This interest lead Underkoffler to create g-Speak LLC. in 2005 to commercialize this novel way to relate to digital media. While there is still no device I can pick up in Future Shop or Best Buy today with this technology embedded into it, it’s definitely on the horizon and it looks like way more fun than the Wii.

We hope you enjoy watching John Underkoffler’s TED Talk, “John Underkoffler points to the future of UI.”

”