John Smart at his Singularity Watch website is predicting the coming of the Linguistic User Interface(LUI) arriving around 2020. Microsoft Research is already working on it, actually voice recognition, the first step towards a LUI will be an integral part of Longhorn. Same with SAP, voice can be used as one of the many channels to interact with the applications.
But, slow down, I hate it already today when people are yapping on their cell phone in a public space, although I admit that sometimes I am one of them. Same in cubical country, it is super distracting when people are on the phone in the office, which usually is only one or two. With the LUI it would be everyone. Give me a break.
May be we can jump that, or leave it somewhere in the privacy of our homes. The data rate of 160 words per minute is way better than the 40 to 60 that you get on a keyboard, but how about going directly to a brain user interface (BUI).
I was getting hopeful when I saw professor Kevin Warwick, self proclaimed first cyborg, him being the first human that implanted a chip into his body (You have to discount all the people with pacemakers, minor detail.) I talked about it at our last Future Salon.
He presented his research at Stanford a couple of weeks back. Professor Warwick connected a chip to a nerve fiber of his left arm and was able to send signals through that nerve to a computer, as well as getting signals back from the computer to his brain. After a bit of training he could manipulate a robotic arm even over the internet.
The video that he showed looked to me a bit like the robotic hand movement was only binary on or off. I could not discern fine-motoric movements. When I asked him, he assured us, that blindfolded he was able to grab a raw egg without braking it.
He also had an experiment, where he would be blindfolded and the chip would be hooked up to movement sensors attached to his head. When his assistants would go towards him with a large piece of cardboard he would physically react and step back.
I was sure, that the human body would reject such a foreign object, but to my astonishment he said that it was tough to get the device out of his body, because it was so grown in.
I remember once seeing a documentary about the first flight of the Wright Brothers and thinking, what's the big deal, they barely left the ground, but it was the first time humans where in the air lifted by an engine. (Which if you have not heard happened 100 years ago this month December 17th. Therefore the picture is over 100 years old and can't be copyrighted anymore, or am I wrong? I will take it down otherwise.)
It felt a bit like this barely off the ground, when Kevin presented his findings, total baby steps, but the possibilities are humongous. One of them the BUI, you formulate your email in your brain and like magic it appears on the screen.
Researching his work, or ahm Googeling him, I realized, that you have to take what he says with a grain of salt. The register even calls him Captain Cyborg and has a whole list of articles dedicated to his publicity stunts.
May be we first have to be happy with the LUI.
"A ring functioning as a wheel" This is a great invention where they are putting the electrical engine right in the wheel. It promises to really improve millage and emissions of buses and other vehicles. 