Microsoft Concept Interface Sees You

"I know Tai Chi"

istartedsomething has video of a natural user interface concept being demonstrated around U.S. colleges by Microsoft chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie. Includes a brief demo of predictive handwriting recognition, much like what we have in Windows 7, but also some stuff that is beyond cutting edge.

A feature of this year’s tour appears to be a next-generation computer – one that docks and undocks from a transparent glass display and allows for not only pen and voice input as you’d come to expect from natural user interfaces, but also incorporates touchless gestures and eye-tracking to interact with the information at hand.

Really fascinating concepts. He talks about intelligent offices that can adjust to your needs. Digital bulletin boards would be nice. Not sure I want my computer reading my eyes and gestures though. Kind of creepy to have it track where I’m looking and how I move. Plus, I imagine advertisers will jump all over that and try to find some way to sneak out that data to gauge my response to their ads. (I’ll save you the trouble – my eyes are unable to avoid ads that show cleavage.)