Monday, December 03, 2007

User Interfaces of the future... still on desktop?

XTR 3D showcased an impressive system that recognize gestures using an ordinary webcam:





I have some doubts that it will be usable since, in contrast to mouse or touchpad, it requires that your arm be in a non-resting position in order to be seen by the camera.

But the problem is another: will interaction with computers still be based on the desktop paradigm as long as computers are no longer "desktop" computers?

Undoubtely, the desktop metaphor is not appropriate for smartphones, PDAs, digital cameras, media players and media centers. That makes me think that a new metaphor is required. Morover, computers are less and less "document-centric". On the opposite, they are more "media" and "activity"-centric".

I personally believe that taking the interface "off the desktop" accounts for searching for new affordances in the interaction space. If we consider embedding computers in ordinary objects, then we must map the existing affordances to computing actions. For instance, if we justappose two objects, then we might think that the two objects recognize their relative spatial relation and according with their types they will exchange information and trigger contextual events.

Additionally, interaction between objects will always happen in the physical space, then the physical space itself will offer some affordance. As in the case of desktop GUI, where motion of icons and windows are sensitive to the context (e.g. zone of the desktop, foreground application, state of the system) where it take places, then the physical and virtual context will affect the interpretation of phyiscal motion of objects.


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Sunday, November 04, 2007

The paradox of DRM

In 2005 I purchased an eBook from Amazon protected with Adobe DRM (Digital Right Management) system. When I opened again today I had the surprise that I could not open anymore because I copied on a different computer.

Adobe Digital Edition tool asks me to contact the vendor of the eBook and download a new copy for the new computer.


I came to Amazon and I discovered that the ebook is no longer in their catalog and I cannot download it:

Digital downloads:

This item has been removed from our catalog and is no longer available for download from Your Media Library. We apologize for the inconvenience.

  • 1 of: The Uses of Argument [DOWNLOAD: ADOBE READER]
    Sold by: Amazon.com, LLC

Of course this experience will prevent me to buy DRM-protected items in the future.

I really hope that this insanity (the DRM) will end soon!!

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Friday, October 19, 2007

Flock browser...

I'm trying the Flock social browser that includes a blog editor...

It seems very nice and I plan to use it extensively


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Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Waiting for the Google University...



What if Google decides to engage in higher education? I believe that they the power and the capabilities of doing it.

Besides, Google is already performing high-level research and supports education activities such as Google Tech Talks.

After all, Larry and Sergei might want to eventually get their Ph.D. degree and one way could be to bring an entire faculty at their own campus!