Beyond Touch Screen Technology
Using electronics is simple matter of delivering input and getting output. While some devices are designed to constantly get input (such as monitoring blood pressure, wind speeds, temperatures, amount of daylight or simply tracking the passing of time), there are also device that require specific inputs from users in order to perform a function.
Actions can be as simple as tapping a touch screen icon to open a function or clicking on a link with the mouse while some can be quite complicated such as performing certain command sequences on a video game console controller. Of course, for mobile phones, the prevalence of capacitive touch screens has vastly improved the way we navigate user interfaces.
Touch commands have gone a long way from basic point and click commands to entire series of gestures and motions that will allow users to scroll, pan, drag and zoom across images, maps and even entire chunks of text and data.
So the question now is what’s next? With touch, it is no longer about changing the way we make commands, we all know that we are eventually going to utilize various motions of not only our fingers, but our hands and arms as well.
One sector of input control that has yet to be fully explored is with mental input. We already have technology that can detect various brain activities and even determine when specific parts of the mind are active. This technology can be used to form some sort of pseudo-neural input commands using non-invasive devices to detect brain activity.
The OCZ Neural Input Actuator is one such device, but it is heavily hampered by its lack of aesthetic value and limited input capabilities. However, it does show that it is possible to use brain input commands for using our devices.
Get to know more about user interfaces of the future at Pocket Lint.
Tags: 2015, computers, future, Touch-screen
