New Frontier of Interactivity

The iPhone and the Wii aren't just faddy -- they're changing the way developers look at interactivity, says Wired. The next wave will build on the iPhone's two-finger touch screen and the Wii's use of natural actions to give us ever more advanced triggers -- including those based on neurotransmitters.
 
"Computing of today is primarily designed for seated individuals doing office work in the developed world," says Scott Klemmer, co-director of the Human Computer Interaction Group at Stanford University. "If you flip any one of those bits -- look at mobile users, or users outside of the developed world or social computing instead of individual computing -- then the future is wide open."
 
Wide open for...controlling gadgets with your thoughts.
 
That's what students at Drexel University's RePlay Lab are hoping to accomplish with Lazybrains, a 3-D game whereupon a person dons a neuro-monitoring headband, called a Brain Interface Device (see above photo), that connects to a "gaming engine." The keyboard and mouse are still used to navigate characters through the world, but the headband sends feedback that influence the world such as the height of platforms or speed of moving obstacles.
 
And what about controlling things from afar?

FingerSight tackles this objective with a miniature camera/computer that attaches to a fingertip.

"The camera tells how much the finger has moved and it becomes the equivalent of being able to use your fingers to turn a knob," says John Galeotti, a postdoctoral fellow at the Robotics Institute of the Carnegie Mellon University  and one of the researchers.

Big-time tech companies are researching new upgrades to current gadgets. Panasonic and Sony, according to a BBC report, are experimenting with face recognition in TVs and controlling them with hand gestures.
 
These all sound exciting, but Klemmer points out that such futuristic concepts can take years to develop.
 
- Jennifer Lai

Photo courtesy of Drexel University