I’m a huge fan of the Tron movies.
It’s almost a tradition of sci-fi to always have some sort of magical interface where the primary mode of input isn’t a keyboard or single finger.
What kind of projects could people could come up with without the limits of a physical keyboard & mouse combo as the main input device? The keyboard backdates to the typewriter where the primary form of communication was characters and numbers. Do we want our new medium to be like a book or like an iPad?
Speaking of the iPad, the interface seems only half thought out, ignoring the efficiency that learning proper gestures gives you. Apple has given some of these more advanced ideas the cold shoulder which has resulted in an interface that is usable (and not particularly understandable) to a range of people from babies all the way to your grandma. While this is great for entertainment purposes, it puts an upper limit on the kinds of experiences we can have with these devices.
What kind of programmer hasn’t wished they could feel like plugging into the grid? The purpose of this project was to create a system to think about new interface designs that aren’t seated in our current reality.
I’m sure employees at companies that build operating systems must have been influenced by these movies at some point. I have always found films to be a great carrier of ideas that can’t be conveyed through other mediums. They have the effect of tricking your mind into believing a certain narrative is completely real, like going to the theatre.
Step 1:
Acquire a table and a screen. The one you see here is a 27" Dell P2714T which supports 10 touch points, which is the same amount of touch points I have
Step 2:
Get someone you know to make some precise measurements for the screen..
Step 3
Cut a big enough hole, by hand. The inside has a little ledge for the screen to fit on.
Step 4
Prepare the subject for insertion. Not much to see here.
Step 5:
The shoe fits! Just like a fairytale, or sci-fi movie.
This blog will be updated in future with some new UI experiments so stay tuned for more soon!
