From: Ed Kummel (tech_ed_at_yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Mar 17 2004 - 22:52:51 PST
why? Why is that? The answer? Because no one has
thought up a _MORE_ intuitave way! Why limit your
thought to what is common? Remember what that kid said
to Neo in The Matrix..."there _IS_ no spoon!"
And _why_ would the next generation PDA need any
learning at all? Why does it have to be intrusive?
In the future, there will _be_ no computer per-se. The
devices around you will perform their assigned task in
the background, communicating with other devices to
get what ever assigned tasks done.
I saw a commercial about the new Lexus car.
It showed a person approaching a car and the voice
over said "most people can recognize their car in a
parking lot". And the person approaches the car. The
car activates _before_ the person touches the car. As
the person approaches the rear of the car and stops,
the car opens the trunk...with no interaction from the
person. He deposits a breifcase and approaches the
drivers door which unlocks and adjusts the environment
for him. Adjusts the seat, the stearing wheel, the
pedals, the music...everything...Then the voice over
says "the new Lexus...now the car can recognize the
owner..."
That's seamless automation...
One of the ideas I am working on is a house that
recognizes people based off of their cellphone.
Imagine that if you approach my house and you're
carrying your cellphone and it's on. My house has a
short range receiver tuned to the cellphone bands (all
of them) It picks up your MIN and MAN and compares it
to a database of known MIN/MANs. If it has yours, the
computer will announce you _before_ you ring my
doorbell. If you are not in the house database, I
would verbally instruct the computer to enter you.
Heck, I've already got something similar with my Jeep!
My Jeep has a wireless WinCE device that when I
approach my driveway it recognizes my SSID for my
802.11b wireless network. It will update my music
database and delete listened to songs and download
additional songs based off of what I listened to. The
CE has a screen that shows the song playing and if I
like that song, I tap the screen and it stores the
song and Genre to update the database and download
additional similar songs. All I have to do it keep my
MP3 collection clean and full...(I'm now up to 14,000
MP3s)
Seamless and invisible...and it works! I eventually
would like it to be voice controled...but can't get
viavoice to discern my voice against the wind noise
when the windows are down...(I think I need a better
mic...I am using a Jabra mic now...)
Basically I believe that technology is crippled by the
belief that you only develop for what you _think_ the
user wants...because it's easy to do...there is little
forward thinking.
People just have to remember to not only "think
different" but to think beyond what they _believe_ is
different...
Don't think outside the box....remember...there _is_
no box...
Ed
web/gadget guru
--- Jon Glass <jonglass_at_usa.net> wrote:
<snip>
> Begging your pardon, but for many people, the
> keyboard _is_ the most
> intuitive manner of interacting with a computer!
<snip>
> transforming the desktop
> system to the handheld is also "familiar" to far too
> many people. They don't
> really want to have to get to know a new way of
> working with their
> computer... In fact, I find this concept rather
> liberating from another
> perspective...
>
> Right now, I have my Newton, my cell phone, I use
> Now Contact for serious
> contact information, yet use Entourage for my
> day-to-day needs, but use the
> Apple Address Book as the center so I can at least
> try to keep some
> semblance of synchronized information between all
> these appliances! (My
> cell, for instnance, only syncs with the Address
> Book.app, and my Newt, only
> with Entourage) If I had one computer that did
> double duty as a desktop and
> as a handheld, I could dispense with all this,
> because I wouldn't need it
> anymore.... At least, that's the dream. ;-)
> --
> -Jon Glass
> Krakow, Poland
> <mailto:jonglass_at_usa.net>
=====
"China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese."
- Charles De Gaulle, former French President
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