Gestural Interface
The movies Minority Report and Matrix : Reloaded both use a "gestural" computer interface; removing the mouse from the equation altogether and using the most natural interace of all: fingers.
I almost always use my Wacom tablet with my iBook these days, finding a pen the most natural interface for me. As touchscreen technology is getting better and more reliable, and as GPU's get faster, it's entirely plausible that SOME company will revisit the desktop that lead to today's mouse-driven environment.
Just just never know...
(not really future hardware or current software, mostly theoretical discussion)
I almost always use my Wacom tablet with my iBook these days, finding a pen the most natural interface for me. As touchscreen technology is getting better and more reliable, and as GPU's get faster, it's entirely plausible that SOME company will revisit the desktop that lead to today's mouse-driven environment.
Just just never know...
(not really future hardware or current software, mostly theoretical discussion)
Comments
Resolution with cameras is problem, as well as shadows. Not to mention the bandwidth and cpu costs of image analysis at a decent framerate. Fortunately the current algorithm I'm using is scalable with faster machines. It can currently track fingers at a few inches/sec under diffused lighting.
The matrix UI was more like a big touchscreen display. This would be pretty easy to implement. Maybe with lots of smudges on the screen though.
None of these are silver bullets though. It's a pain to type a letter with the minority report gloves and difficult to sculpt shapes in 3D Studio with a keyboard.