The Internet has been abuzz with news that Siri may have been cloned and magically transported to Android, giving iOS’s more open rival the chance to perform conversational voice commands and recognition. However, hope for a voice assistant feel flat when the clone, called Cluzee, was put to the test and failed to impress the [...]
Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute have taken the wraps off a new project that projects a hover-capable, motion-tracking, multi-touch interface on any surface, even your own hand. It’s called OmniTouch and it’s a step above anything I’ve seen before.
New to the iPhone 4S will be a software personal assistant named Siri. Simply by speaking a request in natural language, Siri will perform a task to the best of its ability. This is a big deal. If you don’t believe me, just ask Bill Gates.
It looks like we’re finally getting a picture of the long-rumored text-to-speech integration inside Apple’s mobile iOS 5 operating system as a pair of leaked images have surface showing the new voice-enabled feature. The functionality comes from technology developed by Nuance, and appears very similar to the text-to-speech functionality inside Android. Instead of typing in [...]
If you’re an Android or webOS user who have been complaining how the iPhone is inflexible and doesn’t keep up with your lifestyle, four new features rumored to be coming to iOS at WWDC will make you want to give iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads a second look. Apple is said to be updating its [...]
Turns out Microsoft Research published a video demo of their grip-sensing pen that we mentioned yesterday. The demo shows how the pen cursor changes in response to different ways of holding the pen, as well as recognizing it as a different type of instrument when held like a saxophone.
As always, Microsoft Research has some exciting work in development. Their belle of the ball for TechFest 2011 will be natural user interfaces, and they’ve taken the wraps off several projects at their blog, including 3-D rendering of medical images and objects, computer-assisted freehand drawing, and pens that can recognize different grips.
Nuance, makers of speech recognition engines such as the Dragon suite for mobile and desktop platforms, has announced that it is offering the Dragon Mobile SDK through a self-service website as part of the Nuance Mobile Developer Program. The SDK will work for developers looking to create iOS or Android apps and will be available [...]
James Kendrick passes along a story of an autistic boy, an iPad acquired by chance, and amazing interactivity between the two. Makes me think of Grace and something I saw on Friday.
Microsoft Applied Sciences Group has posted a few videos of a project called “The Wedge: Seeing Smart Displays Through A New Lens.” Very interesting user interface work along the same lines as Kinect for XBox where user motion and gestures are captured via optical input. One of the results is a surface computing system that [...]
USA TODAY reports that Microsoft is set to pull the dropcloth off of Project Natal at the Electronic Entertainment Expo this week, but don’t call it that anymore: the new name is Kinect. It’s like “connect”, get it? Except it’s touchless, so you won’t physically connect with anything, and it’s got nothing to do with [...]
Long Zheng of istartedsomething links to the this video of Bill Buxton talking about the Natural User Interface. It’s worth a look-see. Apparently Mr. Buxton gave a presentation at the conclusion of Mix10 Conference on what the natural is in Natural User Interface and this video talks about the same thing. There’s some fascinating stuff [...]
Steve Ballmer had an interesting post on The Huffington Post, timed to run with the buzz generated by his CES2010 keynote, that by most accounts fell somewhat flat. He focuses on the Natural User Interface or NUI, which includes touch, gesture, speech, handwriting, and vision. I’m glad to see him mention handwriting, even in a [...]
MIT’s Technology Review gives us a glimpse of the future in an article about Microsoft’s tactile interface experiments. Multi-touch and motion-sensing devices have recently emerged from research labs, offering new ways to operate computers. Microsoft’s experimental tactile interface takes things further still, letting users interact by squashing, stretching, rolling, or rubbing. Basically, using magnetic sensors [...]
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 [...]
Basic human/technology interfaces haven’t changed their core functionality in nearly forty years. Point and click GUI has been the standard, and new technologies such as touch and pen have been overlaid without changing the core interface philosophy. Intrepid consultant Joshua Blake wants to forget what we know, and start over. He proposes the [...]
I’m a huge fan of natural user interface technologies (NUI) such as pen, ink, touch, multi-touch, speech, etc. I especially love exploring the technical and usability issues that NUI present. As such, I’ve really been enjoying reading Point & Do – a website devoted to natural user interface technologies. Jonathan, the author of the site, [...]
According to this posting at the Surface team blog, developers looking to get on the PDC special pricing on Surface units have a bit more time. The $13,500 discounted price, which includes 5 licenses of the SDK, has been extended to the end of November. Learn more about Surface.com
Microsoft’s Surface team has officially unveiled the limited $13,500 pricing for developers interested in taking Surface natural user interface development to the next level. This limited offer, which also includes 5 SDK licenses, will expire on November 15, so interested developers better act fast. In addition to this limited pricing, attendees at PDC2008 Surface sessions [...]
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12 iPhone Photography Accessories – Lenses, Stands, Filters and More To Enhance Your Photos
Apple made a lot of shutterbugs happy with the camera upgrades in the iPhone 4S — more pixels and a bigger sensor means an even better “best camera” to carry everywhere. Want to take the iPhone even further than that? With some additional accessories and apps you can turn this device into a mobile photo and video studio worthy of your enhanced skills.
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iHome iB40 Headphones: Decent Sound at Budget Price
If you’re looking for a budget set of headphones that still produce decent sound and rich bass, then you should give the iHome iB40 Headphones a look. They’re comfortable, have an understated look, and produce good sound for the money. I hate ear buds! When I’m around the house and want to listen to some music [...]
Droid 4 Review: Incredible Keyboard, Awesome Speeds
The Droid 4 is the most recent of Motorola’s Droid line. The original Droid kicked off the Android revolution on Verizon, so it is good to see that the company is still thinking of users who want a physical keyboard. The Droid 4 marks the first time Motorola has included Verizon’s super fast 4G LTE [...]
Samsung Series 7 Slate Review: First Impressions
These days whenever someone mentions the word “Tablet” visions of the iPad or something similar dance in their heads. Not that long ago a tablet was something quite different: a Windows-based slate computer. Since the rise of the new idea of the tablet there have been a few Tablet PCs trying for relevance in an [...]
