Helping the computer to work in new ways
Rock on!
I wonder if John Markoff was at the Apple iPhone SDK intro? Anyone who saw the demo of Super Monkey Ball learned how the built-in accelerometer facilitated using the iPhone as a game controller. 3D relative motion just like a Wii.
Last year…the arrival of the Wii and the iPhone began to break down the logjam in technological innovation for the way humans interact with computers.
Both devices extend the idea of directly controlling objects on the screen and blending that ability with visually compelling physics software that brings computer screens to life in new, immersive ways.
With a Wii, a wave of the hand can slam a tennis ball in cyberspace; with the iPhone, a flick of a finger can slide a photograph across the screen like paper on a table…
What is new is a convergence of more powerful and less expensive computer hardware and an inspired set of mostly younger software designers who came of age well past the advent of the original graphical user interface paradigm of the 1970s and ’80s…
The transition to more immersive displays is happening in part because of more powerful computer hardware, but also because of an explosion of more powerful programming tools. These tools offer visual effects that were once within the grasp of only the most skillful programmers to a wide audience with only basic skills…
Next wave of changes in computing look to be interesting in ways I hadn’t expected a few years ago.
Posted: Tue - March 11, 2008 at 07:50 AM