Surface to Air

Well, if you have not yet seen this please do have a look http://www.microsoft.com/surface/. Microsoft surface is a promising new interface. No mouse, no keyboard, no desktop no laptop – it is a table top and all it needs is fingers as stimulus.
Promising, not because it is touch sensitive (which a whole of things are today) but because it is multi-application. From sharing photos, to planning an itinerary to. It not just responds to hands but even devices that are kept on it. Add to this, it can also double up as a music interface. Great indeed!
It is interesting to make a note of some to the things that Surface is replacing.
1. It is of course replacing peripherals like mouse/keyboard and it gives 'monitor’or display’a whole new meaning

2. It is removing wires – transferring photographs/music from hand-held devices to stationery devices is still predominantly a wire story

3. In restaurants it is minimizing talking with the bearer. In fact the bearer might just morph into a order delivery person (now that they are not even asking for the bill!)

4. It is replacing paper – menu cards, product brochures

5. While it is stoking interaction between buddies, it is further reducing interaction with strangers – no more calling people to find a street or address (I believe GPS had already started this)

If you look at all the above changes that surface computing promises to bring (and these are restricted by the length of the video that we saw on the website – I am sure there could be many other applications that Microsoft might be mulling), a common theme that seems to emerge is the fading out of physical fixtures be it wires, talking to a bearer, picking up the phone or walking up to someone to ask for a street, looking at a product brochure, writing on a sheet of paper.
As I see this is the first step towards what is popularly known as ubiquitous computing.

First the interface becomes intuitive and begins to look like our natural physical space (table, chair etc)

Next it would wearable (not the table of course!), so would bend when you would and go wherever you went (and not the laptops/palmtops please – we still have to ‘pull them out’ and ‘turn them on’ – how clumsy is that!)

And finally it would transcend physicality (the title of the post came from here)

Though it is (very) intuitive –surface computing still engages a physical object other than human body as its body. It sure has been made to look much less like a computer by camouflaging it in a table – something we are used to having around and being around it still is an ‘explicit interface’ you come to, do stuff and then walk away from but it is primarily a non wearable and distinctly identifiable physical computing device.
I believe Microsoft Surface is an amazingly intuitive interface and might be the early indication of movement towards intuitive computing.

The other thing that surface does very well is that it brings a lot of power to the average user, be it sharing music or pictures, planning the logistics of a day trip, it makes tech and logistics look like everyday simplicity which is great!

So a lot of good news. Also, it just could be a great new way of getting more people into the world of computing - expecially elders.
Surface could also have applications for less literate or illiterate prespective users of computing - we are doing away with a lot of text icons here - which is again a leap forward!

And by the way now that the keyboard is gone - can I also spill my coffee please!?

Television is holding the décor hostage

Thanks to Jammy’s post where he mentioned how one day he discovered that most of his furniture was curiously facing the Television, I got thinking. How as the décor in home before Television made its entry? Well, it was all but aligned in the same direction.
Most of the homes in the world have a décor layout that is made to comply with the positioning of the Television in the room. In other words all critical décor elements need to look towards the Television.
One would assume it is but logical that all the people sitting in a room should look at the TV to see what is on it.
Logical and simple isn’t it? Exactly, that’s my point.
‘Why do we need to look at the Television, why on earth can’t the Television look at us instead?’ That is exactly how it should be.
No matter which way a person is looking in a room or even outside it, he should be able to look at the television effortlessly. In other words a TV ideally should be wearable not just beautiful, slim, flat, black, hanging on the wall or sitting in a cabinet or any such thing.
Television designs are all based on a mindset that it will be placed somewhere in the room, whereas ideally we should be able to tune in and tune off the Television without having to sit or look in a particular direction.
Real technology ironically is invisible and that is how it frees us. This is simplicity at its best.
Home décor should be an example of form and function in perfect harmony and Television must abide by the decor not the other way round.

Television and should not makes us sit in a chair like the barber makes us sit in the saloon chair during the haircut and decides which way we are to turn our head no matter how much we want to look in the other direction. Ouch my neck!