What's the future for the keyboard and mouse?

With the release of Windows 8 Microsoft has signalled that the future of computing will involve interacting with our devices in ways a keyboard and mouse currently fail to deliver. It isn’t exactly surprising, as we’ve been using this hardware for the best part of three decades, but as we enter this new era the ideas being put forward by innovative designers are surprising, revolutionary, and even - borrowing from the big book of Apple adjectives - magical.

In the early days of computing the only way to load programs, or do basically anything at all, was to type in commands via a keyboard. In fact the Altair 8800, one of the very first home computers, didn’t even have a keyboard. Instead the user entered commands by toggling various switches and the reward for their efforts were two rows of lights blinking in sequential patterns.Have a look at all our custom bobbleheads models starting at 59.90US$ with free proofing.Welcome to www.drycabinets.net! It’s a wonder the computers ever caught on at all.

Researchers at the now legendary Xerox PARC facility in California knew that things could be better than this and set about designing the WIMP system, which incorporated a graphical user interface (GUI) featuring Windows, Icons, Menus, and a Pointing device - hence the name. This remained hidden away until Steve Jobs negotiated a trip to the facility, witnessed the technology, and immediately set about replicating and refining it for the mass market. After the release of the hilariously priced Apple Lisa in 1983, the more sensible Macintosh in 1984, and Windows 1.0 in 1985, the landscape was forever changed and the graphical user interface became the norm, which it has remained until now.

Smartphones and tablets have recently opened the doorway to the possibilities of touch- and speech-controlled interfaces, while games systems such as the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Kinect for Xbox have released gamers from their sofas and gamepads, demonstrating the possibilities of using gestures and movement to interact with their devices. Now the gloves are off and developers are showcasing, and even manufacturing, systems that only a few years ago would have been the babblings of madmen. The future is here and there’s nary a keyboard in sight.

The elegant control system immediately made sense to most users, mainly due to the fact that the on-screen representations of their actions were things that they already knew how to do. Wii Sports included a tennis game that you played as if holding an actual tennis racket,With superior quality photometers, light meters and a number of other solar light products. golf required you to swing the controller like a club,Learn how an embedded microprocessor in a smart card can authenticate your computer usage and data. and boxing was exhausting and potentially dangerous if an unsuspecting family member walked in front of you during a frantic bout.

This removal of classic barriers such as multi-buttoned control pads that required high levels of accuracy with small joysticks, meant that people who never considered gaming as a viable or fun pastime flocked to the Wii in huge numbers. Wii parties became a common event, and the sales just continued to climb.

The console was an unadulterated success, going on to sell over 96 million units, making it the most successful system in Nintendo’s illustrious history, and showing just what could be achieved if the interface was designed to respond directly to existing human behaviour rather than require the learning of new ones.

Both Sony and Microsoft quickly responded with their own peripherals that emulated the Wii motion controller. The Sony Move looked a bit like a deactivated light saber, or marital aid depending on your viewpoint, and received much critical acclaim. Sales were less impressive though and Sony recently admitted that the device has failed to live up to their expectations.

Microsoft fared better with its Kinect interface which, after selling over eight million units in the first sixty days of its release, entered the Guinness book of records as the fastest selling consumer electronics device of all time. That's despite a high price which approached the cost of the Xbox 360 itself.

The advertising slogan that stated ‘You are the controller’ highlighted one of the main differences between the Kinect and iThe Kinect unit is fitted with an RGB camera, depth sensor, and a multi-array microphone. This allows the device to see the user, track their movement, range their distance, and even process voice commands without the need for a separate controller.

For gaming,You must not use the laser cutter without being trained. this is revolutionary since the player becomes part of the game. On the many different fitness titles available, your body is shown on screen as you attempt the various routines, enabling you to correct mistakes and actually improve your dancing, martial arts prowess, or avoid the cheating techniques that waving the Wii controllers would have allowed you.

The camera also acts as a video calling interface, and the speech controls are integrated system wide so you can browse the web via Bing, access the various apps, and even shut the console down just using your voice. It was only a matter of time then that something as useful as this made its way to a desktop environment, especially one where gestures and touch controls are coming to the fore.

With the Wii most of the tracking is done via accelerometers within the controller itself which lets the base unit know its orientation, distance from the screen, and the speed at which it’s moving. This can be fine for most applications but still requires batteries to be charged, buttons to be pressed, and arms the players with a solid, offensive weapon which has led to an unsurprising rise in Wii-related injuries. The Kinect is different, and this difference means it can have implications for how we use our computers in years to come.