It's week 11 - This is the future, this stuff matters.
Moore's law indicates that in any given two year period computers and computing power would actually double (click on diagram to enlarge). This trend has been true for more than half a century now. The keyboard and then the mouse were the major ways to interact with this technology during the same period. Why have these devices not evolved and are they really the best way to work with the technology?
Steve Jobs and Apple led with significant strides in bringing touch screen technology to the consumer market with the iPod, iPhone and iPad. But we think such innovations are just the beginning of a new era of how we interact with, and integrate technology. Touch and natural user interface (NUI) are a significant game changer in technology and we expect these advancements to have significant impact on the access to and social architecture of education in the future.
Human computer interaction has been both idealized and fantasied about in popular culture. How it was idealized in science fiction will allow us to evaluate where we are now and what expectations there are.
Remember when we got a glimpse of the shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man who does not exist. Michael Knight was a young loner on a crusade, to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless. In a world of criminals who operate above the law...." We all remember the duo of Michael and KITT. This was a futuristic view of exactly what this week is about. KITT could control the car, understand Michael in language, intonation and body language. KITT was a true multi sensory multi functional device.
Despite being created from discarded scrap metal Star Wars character C-3PO had an original function to help out with household chores. Versed in many languages and a large database on etiquette and diplomacy he became very useful in mediation throughout the adventures of the 6 movies. Who knows what disney will have him do in the seventh installment! This is a romantic idealization of Artificial Intelligence. C-3PO has awareness of his surroundings, himself and others around him. While he understands and responds to all communication methods both verbal and non verbal he also is able to react and analise these situations in real time.
The futuristic cartoon family the Jetsons were a holy wonder. Father George had a nine hour work week and was 'friends' with RUDI, his work computer. They lived in an Orbit City and had a household robot which they loved that did the housework and some parenting. Alarmingly their lives were set in just 50 years from now. If we were to extrapolate Moore's Law for this time period we might not be living in an orbital city but some of the elements could be possible. Rumors are that there will be a movie version in 2014 which hopefully will be as good as the cartoon series.
As our team sees it we can breakdown the advances and developments of this area into the three distinct areas -
Voice, Touch and Gesture.
Each is at a different stage of development and each have their merits. We will have a look at them individually and then look at a synergy of all three in the hope to grapple with the thoughts of what kind of interactions the next generation could be looking forward to. Where are we really going with the development. Where should we really be aiming at. How can we as educational technologists guide the development to allow us to utilize these advancements in the best possible way as early adopters.
One of the very first technologies that appeared as a legitimate challenger to the keyboard/mouse was voice control. This was an idealistic dream of technology understanding language, this dream has not dissipated - Voice Control.
Voice, Touch and Gesture.
Each is at a different stage of development and each have their merits. We will have a look at them individually and then look at a synergy of all three in the hope to grapple with the thoughts of what kind of interactions the next generation could be looking forward to. Where are we really going with the development. Where should we really be aiming at. How can we as educational technologists guide the development to allow us to utilize these advancements in the best possible way as early adopters.
One of the very first technologies that appeared as a legitimate challenger to the keyboard/mouse was voice control. This was an idealistic dream of technology understanding language, this dream has not dissipated - Voice Control.
Voice, Touch and Gesture by UBC - Ventures in Education Technology is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License." >
