Let’s talk about interacting with technology. Any kind of technology. Say – my dryer. I have this. But all I really want is this.How can technology understand what I want, what I intended? Lots of ways, so…I want to talk about NUI for a minute. I think a lot of people think it’s something new for us with Kinect and Touch. Bill has been talking about Rich Input Devices forever – voice, ink, touch, etc.I also think people mistake it for touch or gesture way too often. But it struck me when launching KIN… many reviewers were surprised that one of the devices had a keyboard. “Why?” they asked, “would you put a keyboard here, when you’re investing so deeply in other inputs like voice and touch?”Because NUI isn’t any one of those things. NUI is what “Naturally” makes sense in that scenario. And sometimes, the best way to interact with technology is a keyboard and a mouse. Sometimes, the best way (in a car) is voice. And sometimes, touch is the best way to interact. It’s just what makes the most sense for the scenario and the technology at the time.Think of it as – Common Sense computing.
From killer apps to technology maturityHistorically a software innovation unlocks new potential, but it takes a first “killer app” to drive adoption and further development of the innovation to maturity. When something new comes along, end-users drive adoption if there is a clear benefit to using it. Technology phases build on each other, and recently they are happening faster. PhasesDOS (1981-1995)Last version of DOS as a separate program shipped with Windows 95Apps: Spreadsheets, word processorsGUI (1985-present)Windows 1.0 in 1985Apps: Desktop publishing, multimediaInternet (1993-present)Mosiac launched 1993, Netscape Navigator launched 1994, IE 1.0 and 2.0 launched 1995Apps: Email, web browsersClient + Cloud (2006 - present)In 2006, Amazon launched its Elastic Compute cloud (EC2) as a commercial web service, the first widely accessible cloud computing infrastructure serviceApps: Location-based apps, social networksNUI (2012 – present)Manycore processors ship in 2012Apps: Not sure, but they will be human-centric and immersive Apps like social networking and mobile location-based applications are driving the development of client+cloud. Natural user interfaces and the first killer apps for that technology will take off around 2012, when manycore desktop machines arrive on the market. We are on the verge of a transformation of the roles computers play in our lives, and how we interact with them. How do our computing systems need to evolve?
