Thursday, February 14, 2008
Disney's House of the Future - reminds me of my childhood memories of Expo 67..
I came across an article in MIT's Technology Review on-line about Disney's revival of the "House of the Future". According to the article, the "$15 million (euro10.32 million) home is a collaboration of The Walt Disney Co., Microsoft Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., software maker LifeWare and homebuilder Taylor Morrison."
This brought back a few memories from my childhood.
I remember visiting a "kitchen of the future" at Expo 67, in Montreal, Canada, when I was a little girl. The most amazing thing that I saw was a video phone. I was so excited to be told that in the very near future, all families will have video-phones in their kitchens!
Are we there yet?!
This clip of the Telephone Pavilion has a brief demonstration of a video phone. Even better is the demonstration of the "Telephone of the Future". Here is an excerpt:
"The Telephone of the Future - you can make a call from the palm of your hand, you touch buttons, instead of dialing, and it has an electronic tone, instead of a bell.. And one day, completely portable!"
There is a demonstration of call forwarding, a picture phone, and a means to pay bills by phone. (Listen the lyrics of the music in the background.. "this is the way we pay our bills..")
The family takes a trip to Expo '67 - (Not my family!)
(Music on the clip reportedly is from Isao Tomita's electronic music interpretation of Debussy's Pictures from an Exhibition, recorded in 1975, but somehow appropriate.)
Tour of Man in the Community pavilion - discusses man, community, and technology.
Expo 67 in Montreal
(John Whelan)
The Expo Lounge Blog
All about Expo 67!
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Trends: New interfaces and new interactions for computing and technology: Link to an article from The Economist
If you are interested in emerging technologies, ubiquitous computing, interface/interaction design, and topics related to usability and user-centered design, a recent article in the Technology Quarterly of The Economist, "The Trouble with Computers" provides a good overview of problems and solutions. The article quotes experts such as Adam Greenfield, the author of "Everyware: The dawning age of ubiquitous computing".
My favorite quotes from the article:
"Its an interface designed by engineers for engineers" - Adam Greenfield, on the Nokia 6680 mobile phone.
"...computer programmers and engineers....are often guilty of designing complicated systems packed with too many features...There's a point where humanity just can't handle it." -Steven Kyffin, senior researcher at Philips.
"Ease of use is one area where technology firms can differentiate themselves and gain competitive advantage" --The Economist
"Making computers simpler to use will require more than novel input devices. Smarter software is needed, too." --The Economist
The article goes on to discuss touch screens, gesture-aware interfaces, and context-aware devices and applications.
