cacm;online
ACM
Member
News
DOI: 10.1145/1743546.1743552
David;Roman

interact naturally

The mouse’s days are numbered. Computer interfaces that remove user-system barriers are in the works and are intuitive enough for first-time users to throw away the manual. The iPhone’s multitouch interface may have ushered in a wave of easier interfaces for the mass market, but it’s just the beginning. Many new and exciting replacements for the familiar point-and-click scheme are on the way.

Skinput technology ( http://www.chrisharrison.net/projects/skinput/) showcased at CHI 2010 ( http://cacm.acm.org/news/83935) “appropriates” the human body as an input surface, says Carnegie Mellon Ph.D. student Chris Harrison, who developed SkinPut with Desney Tan and Dan Morris of Microsoft Research.

Gaze-based interfaces are being considered for data input, search, and selection ( http://portal.acm.org/toc.cfm?id=1743666&type=proceeding&coll=GU IDE&dl=GUIDE&CFID=86057285&CFTOKEN=34856226), and driving vehicles ( http://cacm.acm.org/news/88018-car-steered-with-drivers-eyes/fulltext). Voice controls have boarded Ford cars ( http://www.fordvehicles.com/technology/ sync/) and Apple smartphones.

Gesture interfaces is another hot area in the interface arena. MIT Media Lab Ph.D. candidate Pravan Mistry’s Sixth Sense ( http://www.pranavmistry.com/ the holidays season. There are dozens of related You Tube videos at http://www. youtube.com/user/xboxprojectnatal. Its application outside gaming is not clear.

Another promising but challenging area is the brain-machine interface (http:// cacm.acm.org/news/73070-building-a-brain-machine-interface/fulltext), which sounds less fact than fiction, but was in fact the focus of DARPA’s Augmented Cognition program ( http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2008/03/augcog-continue/).

All these interfaces aim to give users a simple, natural way to interact with a
system. Microsoft’s Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie says natural
user interfaces will appear first with gaming and entertainment systems but “will
certainly find application…in the communications domain.”
To read more about the interfaces of the future, check out the newly revamped
ACM student magazine XRDS (formerly Crossroads). The print edition is available
now; look for magazine’s new Web site coming soon.

sixth sense: using palm for dialing a phone number.

eD Lazo WsKa Wins acm’s DistinGuisheD seRVice aWaRD

ed Lazowska, the Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer science & engineering and director of the escience institute at the University of Washington, is the 2009 recipient of ACM’s Distinguished service Award for his wide-ranging service to the computing community and his long-standing advocacy for this community at the national level.

“forty years ago, in 1969, there were three landmark events: Woodstock, neil Armstrong’s journey to the surface of the moon, and the first packet transmission on ArPAne T,” Lazowska said in an email interview. “With four decades of hindsight, which had the greatest impact? Unless you’re big into Tang and Velcro (or sex and drugs), the answer is clear. our future is every bit as bright as our past. no field is more important to the future of our nation or our world than computer science. We need to get that message out. Advances in computing are fundamental to addressing every societal grand challenge.

“i was recently party to a discussion with Anita Jones and robin Murphy on ‘ Type i’ and ‘Type ii’ research in Cs. Type i focuses on the technologies— compilers, operating systems, sensors. Type ii focuses on the problems—engineering the new tools of scientific discovery, global development, health i T, emergency informatics, entertainment technology. i’m a Type ii person. either we expand our definition of Cs to embrace these challenges, or we become insignificant.

“forty years ago, as an
undergraduate at Brown
University, i was seduced into
computer science by Andy
van Dam. The potential to
change the world is greater
today than it has ever been.
We need to communicate this
to students. This field makes
you powerful.”
—Jack Rosenberger