The science fiction genre is a wonderous storytelling vehicle. It gives us a glimpse into our future, the technologies we might be using and how we’ll possibly interact with one another amidst the vast information networks now influencing our world.
Since its release almost a decade ago, Minority Report remains one of the most referenced sci-fi movies for futuristic design in recent memory. The funky gesture-based interface Tom Cruise and his PreCrime team use to catch criminals gives us a glimpse into a world driven by AI machines.
There’s no denying gesture based UIs will someday replace mouse and keyboard inputs. Technologies like Pranav Mistry’s SixthSense UI and more recently Apple’s Siri, suggest we’re heading towards a dematerialized future of seemingly invisible devices in which conventional screen-based interfaces will eventually be replaced by more natural forms of input. Voice prompts could someday replace clicking a mouse or tapping a touch sensitive screen as a more efficient way to access and interact with information. Repetitive strain-inducing forms of HCI could one day become a thing of the past.
I remember seeing John Underkoffler demo his g-speak (short for gesture speak) UI research at FITC back in 2010. It was amazing. I thought to myself, the UI concepts depicted in Minority Report were no longer science fiction, but were becoming science fact. Underkoffler said he believed (at the time) we were 5 to 7 years away from interfaces similar to Minority Report. Though I now tend to think a more ambitious mind/UI leap will materialize in the form of cybernetic implants akin to The Matrix or Brainstorm (no, not that thing you do at meetings—the 1983 sci-fi movie starring Christopher Walken).
But it’s fair to argue cybernetic interfaces may be much further off. After all, who really wants a network ethernet cable plugged directly into the back of their neck? Who would want their thoughts recorded and played back for others to experience? Perhaps learning jujitsu in a matter of seconds would have benefits. Why bother going to martial arts classes for years when you could perform a near instantaneous knowledge transfer downloaded directly to your cerebral cortex.
One day something similar to this mildly disturbing scenario may play out and finally render books, television, digital texts, and all conventional forms of media consumption permanently obsolete.
Oh, but how would advertising function in such a hyper-knowledge based society? Would we pay subscription fees to agencies providing weekly memory implants and virtual vacation experiences to Mars like the ones Douglas Quaid took in Total Recall?
In the film Blade Runner the Nexus-6 Replicants engineered by the Tyrell Corporation, though not human, were given memory implants to artificially provide an emotional cushion. The years of experiences we generally take for granted provide a sort of mental stability in our lives, but would otherwise create a distressing existence if obstructed or removed —human or otherwise.
Maybe those of us working as the UX designers and software engineers of today will be the ones crafting the memory plug-ins of tomorrow. True escapism and one of a kind out-of-body immersions, all for the incredibly low price of $195.95 per petabyte of data assimilation. Sounds like a bargain, until you have a psychotic break from reality. The idea of creating synthetic experiences by way of a direct mind/device neural interface, sounds down right nightmarish compared to current augmented reality concepts. Such is the recurring dystopian theme through sci-fi, that humans will eventually form an insidious bond with the technologies we use.
Had enough doom and gloom yet?
In reality the next user interface you’re bound to experience (if not already) may be something a little less invasive. I wonder if Siri, Steve Jobs’ swan song for Apple, was inspired by a funny scene in the film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (that strange image at the top of this post). Captain Kirk and the Enterprise team travel back in time to save the world from, you guessed it, some advanced alien intelligence threatening to destroy the human race. Commander Scott finds himself in front of a primitive computer of the day (a Macintosh by the looks of it, circa 1986). Low and behold Mr. Scott is surprised to learn he must use a keyboard instead of (gasp!) voice recognition. “How quaint, a keyboard” he says, as he begins typing out the molecular formulas for 1-inch thick transparent aluminum.
Maybe Jobs after watching this scene had an epiphany for Siri and voice-op UIs back in 1986. Or maybe it was that scene from the 1984 film 2010 – The Year We Make Contact. In any case, talking to our computers will probably soon become a normal activity while clicking a mouse and touching a screen perhaps going the way of the hand-written letter.