Future of Computing Input

Is a keyboard and mouse the best we can do? Right now they are the best way that we know of to input and manipulate data in a computer. It wasn't always that way though. The earliest computers had switches, nobs or dials to input data. These were later replaced by punchcards and eventually the keyboard. The keyboard worked great for text input and output. Think the old black and white text screens.

Then someone started making all these fancy computers with colorful "windows" and things to click on. The mouse was invented by Douglas Engelbart in 1963 to help us input instructions and move things around in these new fancy environments. The mouse has always been a little more abstract than many would like. For example, try to draw a picture with a mouse. It is very difficult because the mouse is not actually over the picture, it is beside the computer.

So what does the future hold? Normally I don't like to make predictions but this technology looks so cool that it could quite possibly replace the keyboard and mouse. We were promised speech recognition (think Star Trek) but even if we could get that to work, how do you tell a computer to do more abstract things like open a specific file and move it around or draw a picture? We need something else. Enter the multi-touch interactive screen. Think Minority Report by Stephen Speilberg. Where Tom Cruise is waiving his hands around to manipulate the information. It seemed a bit silly to me but to actually see a video of someone doing something like it is very impressive.

If you want to see the future of computer input, follow this link to Multi-Touch Interactive Research at NYU. Prepare to be impressed.