Human-computer interaction in the year 2020
Obviously, no one really knows what computing will be like in 2020 but that doesn’t mean we can’t speculate about it. Last year, Microsoft brought together some leading researchers to consider how humans would be interacting with computers by 2020 and Ars Technica says that a report on the findings is now available:
The report covers more ground that can possibly be covered in a cogent summary. Fortunately, it hits some obvious points that are easily summarized. For example, it concludes that speech and gestures would play a larger role in HCI, and suggests that nerve impulses themselves would start to be used for controlling computers, especially for the disabled. It also predicts that the pervasive connectivity that enables computers to act as surrogates for human memory would, when combined with enhanced processing power, begin to allow them to supplement human reasoning.
But a number of its conclusions are less obvious. Computers are just now starting to identify us by RFID and facial recognition, and track us through GPS and closed-circuit monitoring. In essence, we’re now involuntarily “interfacing” with computer systems every time we go through an airport. The experts predict that these trends will accelerate and expand, raising serious privacy issues. In some cases, such as implanted medical devices, the boundary between human and computer is nearly erased—is there really a “human interface” between a device that can monitor and manipulate heartbeats and the heart itself?
The report is called “Being Human” and is available at this link.
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