Ken Perlin demonstrates the unmouse Pad during the ninth annual microsoft Research faculty summit at the microsoft headquarters in Remond, Wa.

engine with only his or her hands. rable, socially positive, and robust for As humans get their hands and bothnoviceandexpertuse.

fingers into the act of manipulating “The way it will end up is we will everything, they must be careful in get better, as a species, for having their expectations of how novel the our computer interfaces match the actions are as new expressive multi- richness that is already built into our touch, gestural, and bimanual inter- brains and body,” Perlin says. “You faces are developed. And researchers watch people use sign language, ges-must learn from Apple that it chose a turing, manipulating tools, or playing set of multifinger tracking techniques guitar in the real world. We have the for the iPhone; its interface makes the potential of writing software that cap-act of showing a photo to another per- tures the richness of human interac-son into a visual spectacle. Research- tion that has evolved over millions of ers must develop scenarios of use that years. When it becomes successful, it people want to perform, and scenarios won’t seem exotic. It will be as aston-can be better than simple, ergonomic, ishing to people that they used to rely and productive; they can be memo- on a mouse and keyboard as it was to

people when they used to program through punch cards.”

Hands and eyes are the special connections that the human brain has to the physical world. In the next few years, many great advances are possible, such as 3D multitouch interfaces. Three dimensions can make a huge difference. For instance, George Miller’s famous paper about short-term memory holding seven, plus or minus two things demonstrated that people remember many more items in a random list of numbers, letters, and words in 3D than in 2D.

Although coordinated multitouch input, such as a two-handed, chordic stenographer keyboard, might be great for words—and words are powerful—a picture is truly worth a thousand words. Multitouch interfaces offer more exciting ways to search for and display images. They might also drive faster use of information. These interfaces are demonstrating natural 3D metaphors, allowing coordinated manipulation to replace what would be multiple actions with a cursor control. In the near future humans can look forward to merging simple hand gestures with rich feedback in a 3D interface to create display and control surfaces that are simple to use, increase productivity, and produce more socially positive experiences.

 

formerly an associate professor at the mi T media Laboratory, Ted Selker develops and tests new user experiences in Palo alto, ca. saratoga, ca-based author and technology writer Wylie Wong provided additional reporting.

Quantum Cryptography
Quantum-Encrypted Network Debuts in Vienna

a team of international researchers and siemens austria unveiled the first commercial network protected by quantum encryption at a Development of a global Network for secure communication based on Quantum cryptography (secoQc) conference in vienna, bbc radio reports. The network connected six different locations in vienna and one in the neighboring town of st. poelten, and involved nearly 125 miles of fiber-optic cable.

While standard network

security encryption is based on complex mathematical equations that are extremely difficult to crack, it is vulnerable to parties who possess sufficient computing resources and time. The promise of quantum encryption is its reliance on the laws of quantum theory, which has been shown to be inherently unbreakable.

“all quantum security schemes are based on the heisenberg uncertainty principle, on the fact that you cannot measure quantum

information without disturbing it,” gilles brassard, a computer scientist at Montreal university and a pioneer of quantum cryptography, told bbc radio. “because of that, one can have a communications channel between two users on which it’s impossible to eavesdrop without creating a disturbance. an eavesdropper would create a mark on it. That was the key idea.”

The vienna network used extremely faint beams of light, equal to single photons

being fired a million times a second, which raced between the nodes. When an intruder tried to eavesdrop on the quantum exchange, the photons scrambled, and the rise in the error rate at the node detectors announced the attack. The network shut down without being compromised, and the network connections were rerouted via other nodes without any interruption in connectivity.

The secoQc researchers believe a business-viable network is possible in three years.