I recently visited the Deutsche Telekom Labs in Berlin, known as T-Labs. T-Labs are carring out basic and technology research that focuses on developing future-proof applications in a wide range of areas. Their research projects develop existing technologies based on the continuous scouting of forward-looking trends. One research team there is looking to usability as the mean to greatly improve the quality and, with it, the sales of interactive products. This team is exploring new ways of interacting with mobile devices.

They had the idea of a touchless data entry system that is based on the interaction between the magnetic fields around a device and a properly shaped magnet. The magnetic field that surrounds the device is generated by a magnetic sensor (compass) that is embedded in the new generation of mobile phones such as Apple iPhone 3Gs and 4G, and Google Nexus one. The small magnet could be worn for instance on a finger, if it is put on a ring: as the hand is moved around the mobile phone, the 3D interaction is measured and transformed in a command. This gestural interface extends to the peripheral area of the device without needing any extra element. The interface can be used to perform certain tasks, based on the pattern of the movement. These tasks can vary from entering a text or digit into the phone to turning pages or zooming while reading an e-book.

Here you can download and see a video of MagiWrite in action.

MagiWrite uses the compass to sense gestures.

You may have noticed that currently stereoscopic displays have only one parallax direction, the horizontal one.This means that you can look explore an object tridimensionally only moving to his right or left, but not up or down, which would require vertical parallax capability of the display. This applies to the 3D Cinema or TV set solutions that are based on eyewear, or to autostereoscopic displays like those used on the Nintendo 3DS.

Even more complex displays, like those developed and commercialized by Holografika, a hungarian company that patented a ray projection holographic display, are offering a mono-parallactic stereoscopic view: using several optical light projecting modules that are hitting each singular voxel (volumetric pixel) onto the “holographic” screen, they are able to recreate a wider angle view then other techniques can today. Holografika’s technique consists in projecting several different angular views of an object on the screen that can be perceived by the viewer just slightly moving on his left or right, as we would do in a real life object exploration.

Now if you try to watch the upper or lower sides of this virtual object, you will get always the same view of it, as in fact the system is not able to perform vertical parallax, giving back a sensation of fakeness.

A new kind of display has been invented by Holovision that can create high-resolution, three-dimensional moving images that can be viewed with full parallax by people in different locations without special eyewear.

Holovision volumetric display based on MEMS.

This display leverages on the future features brought by MEMS (Micro Electrical Mechanical Systems) that in the next years will be used to create a matrix of moving display elements to guide light at the level of individual display elements (such as voxels). MEMS will be able to spin light at individual voxel level in all directions, thus dynamically recreating a volumetric image.

Array of spinning microlenses at voxel (volumetric pixel) level

Such a revolutionary volumetric display system will have also consequences in terms of all the data that has to be elaborated and transmitted, requiring graphics processing units and transmission channel capabilities to perform several times more than today.

Our friend, Luca Zoia, just sent me an interesting McKinsey report dealing with Big Data. Take a look at it, it is indeed worth reading as Luca suggest.

In a nutshell it is saying that the amount of data being created keeps growing (at double and even triple digit rates depending on the area), something that we know of course, and that these data if seen in their totality can increase the efficiency and create wealth in many sectors, and we know that too. What is nice is that they try to put figures on this revenue generation and information-based wealth creation.

I won’t go into details, since you can read the report first hand. Rather, I’d like to share some ideas on these data-scape.

Forecast of data growth till 2014

As a first point, the report mention a figure of about 30 million sensors being connected to the network, and I already posted some thinking about that some time ago, see Data are a potential wealth, and The train of sensors …

Actually, there are many more sensors being connected to the net, although they are connected to local nets. What is interesting is that the distribution follows the model of the Small Worlds and we know what happens as these islets start to get connected one another. All of a sudden everything gets connected.

Hence, my impression is that during this decade we are going to see an explosion of data derived from sensors. And talking in terms of explosion is not an overstatement since CISCO is forecasting 50 billion sensors by 2015 and HP a staggering one trillion by  2020. Even if those figures are way out the mark what remains is such a biiiig number!

Secondly, and this is more about the interface and the semantics we digest, my bet is that the deluge of data will mostly go unnoticed to most of us most of the time. Actually this is what has been happening for millions of years: our sensory system can detect something like 2 billion bits per second (equivalent) of data but it is estimated that just a few kbps of data are actually triggering our perception making our brain to change state.

I bet that evolution in processing and interfaces will transform the data tsunami in nice postcards we can look one at a time.

We are actually working to try out this idea in the Trento Region where the aim is to harvest as much data it is possible from many sources and then look for the emergence of simple meaning that can be transferred to human beings. We would like to be able to do that in the context of the European KIC initiative.

Stay tuned.

Organic Light Emitting Displayis a technolgoy that has been around for some time. It provides bright colors using a fraction of the energy required by LED. BUT…it is very difficult to fabricate large screens and therefore, so far, it has only found application in cell phones displays.

Bright colors visible under the Sun light: a dream coming true?

Now a start up company, QD Vision, is starting to market a new technology based on Quantum Dot that promises to be as cost efficient as OLED, to deliver even brighter colors and to support large screens fabrications. An agreement with LG has just been announced: http://www.qdvision.com/content1438.

Quantum Dot technology creates nanoparticle that are sensitive to light at different frequences and that behaves as conversion filters. Infrared emission, that accounts for 80% of a classic light bulb emission (and for the generated heath) can be converted through quantum dot to red, visible light. Depending on the size of the “dot” a specific light frequency is emitted. This allows a dramatic increase in brilliance (no energy is wasted) and lower consumption. The trick is the accurate fabrication of dots with exactly the right size to produce the desired color. This is what QD Vision has managed to achieve.

Take a look at this video explaining it. It is lengthy, 7 minutes, but interesting.

In this decades we are going to see a tremendous increase in the use of screens, we will find them everywhere and on most objects. This will change the way we relate to objects and as a side effect it will increase the bandwidth demand on telecommunications networks.

Touch screens are no longer news. But this one announced by Microsoft through the filing of a patent application is definitely newsworthy. According to Microsoft the screen can create minuscule alteration to ts surface in such a way that your hand gets the impression of touching a 3D surface, of course the one of the object whose image is being displayed.

Feel the bark ridges on the screen!

This feat is achieved through plastic pixels on the surface of the screen that can change their position thus creating ridges, bumps and edges. The plastic pixels (polymer) are stimulated by ultraviolet rays making them to change their surface. Different wavelengths create different distortions and can also provide the feeling of  hard or soft surface.

This is an alternative approach into tricking our senses than the one used by a number of companies, including Nokia, Senseg and Disney Research, based on creating a vibrating surface to stimulate touch receptors in our skin (called vibrotactile displays). One of the problem with this vibrating surface is the noise created by the vibration. With the Microsoft approach that problem disappear. According to the inventor, Erez Kikin-Gil, this technology is a good fit with MS Surface product (a table top screen you can play on using your hands to interact with the images displayed).

There is no announced date for the inclusion of this technology in a real product but still it gives us the flavor of new kind of interfaces just round the corner.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19776-microsoft-develops-shapeshifting-touchscreen.html

I had the opportunity of visiting Infocomm Asia in Hong Kong, http://www.infocomm-asia.com/ , and the main theme was 3D screens, movies and television, advertisement and games.

3D screens everywhere at Infocomm Asia

I have to confess that those many screens had a magnetic effect on me and I spent several minutes looking in awe at the images, through polarized glasses and also without them. Then, I had to quit.

I started to feel uneasy and then a full blown headache hit me. It was not the first time. When I see 3D screens after a while I get headache. It may be a matter of just few minutes or ten. And the headache lingers for a while.

It is not just me, apparently several people suffer the same. Viewing 3D on a home screen is quite different than viewing it in a cinema. There you are sitting in a darkened environment and all you see is the screen. At home (or at a fair) the ambient is illuminated and therefore you see at the same time the screen and its surrounding. Your eyes scan the whole environment and when they move from the screen to what is at the side have to readjust their focus and this is what affect adversely several people, myself included.

Therefore, yes the images are really fantastic but they are not for me!

Right one year ago, the Volkswagen Group launched a delightful initiative called “The Fun Theory”. Basically, this experiment started from the assumption that the easiest way to change people’s behavior for the better is by making it fun to do, and according to the facts it’s proved to be so. Before making some considerations, watch the following video:

First of all, what is an interface? As an information engineer, I always thought of the GUI, the human-machine interface involving primarily the sense of sight. But we have just seen an example of an interface that involves practically just the sound. People, in fact, were encouraged to use the trash can because attracted by that funny noise, a sound similar to that used in cartoons when something falls from tens of meters. So, at the end, it seems that a particular sound, as a mean of communication, can become more effective than every other sign language.

Secondly, I believe that research often loses sight of its main objective, to be functional compared to the real problems people have. That’s why I consider such a technology so brilliant, because it’s an example of a trivial technology that fulfills a role as noble as that of sensitizing people about civic issues. Perhaps we should more often remember that we already have a lot of on-the-shelf technology, and it’s enough to “connect the dots”, as Steve Jobs says, to solve many problems that hinder our daily life.

Third and final consideration, but not least, this initiative has been sponsored by Volkswagen. Maybe something got to do with the collection of the waste in public green spaces? No, of course. If we look at the number of users who saw the video on Youtube soon it becomes clear why they posted that video and others. Advertising. 2736205 visits while I’m watching… The German carmaker appears to have hit the bullseye, don’t you think? Again, we could make some considerations about the type of advertising. Starting from the assumption that fun helps in the decision making process, then it could be a reasonable inference that watching a funny video and associating it with the Volkswagen logo, next time you are undecided between a VW Golf and an Alfa Romeo Giulietta, you choose the German car!

Back to July we talked about the huge number of remote controls we have at home. We need a different password for each site we log in to, and sometimes we get confused; we need to find the remote for the right appliance, and we often do not find it. Who has never wanted to have just one device to control all the appliances in his home?

As Roberto had correctly pointed out in his post, every attempt made by companies to develop a universal remote control has failed. But now there’s Apple Store and I believe it will be a different story! Starting by the Apple TV that allows to use the iPhone/iPad as a remote control, my impression is that all those devices that abound in our homes are destined to disappear, and for each of them there will be just a cute and easy-to-use application. Since I work for a telco, I must try to understand where there may be a control point over the over-the-top… Well, I think that the business model behind the Verizon’s VCAST App Store is a strategic opportunity we cannot afford to miss out on!

Give a look at the next videos, the first one is an example made by Pioneer about how is it possible to control their receiver or Blu-ray player using their free iControl AV application, the second one is a lighting control demo held last September at BEX Asia 2010 in Singapore.

The Astonishing Tribe is a Sweden-based firm that provides user interface technology for mobile phones, handsets and tablets. Recently the company has conducted a two-weeks experiment based on the collection, through their forum on the Open Innovation, of users’ thoughts about “the future of screens”:

“I would like a screen with inflatable surface”
“For some reason I really like transparent screens”
“You could have a roller curtain as a screen”
“Why not augmented windows”
“Magic stretchable screens”
“Stitch together those screens for a larger viewport”
“What if the screens could identify the person viewing them”
“How about 3D screens on mobile phones?”
“A table that becomes the user’s screen”
“Why not use the camera to virtually extend the screen”
And many others…

Starting from all those ideas they have built up some concept designs to make an inspirational video on the topic with the purpose to give a glimpse of our life in the coming years. I think it’s a good example of customer engagement and loyalty by making customers involved in the process of innovation… That video has just been released on YouTube, have a look!

Think back 10 years ago: we did not have multi touch screens (nor single touch screen in consumer market), screens were mostly based on CRT and were bulky, voice and gesture recognition were for demos in labs.

What will be interfaces ten years from now? Take a look at:

http://blog.radioactiveyak.com/2010/08/future-of-mobile-invisible-connected.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheRadioactiveYak+(The+Radioactive+Yak)

The future of Glasses? Embedding a telecamera!

where Reto Meier, an Android developer for Google, take his shot to the future of interfaces. According ot Meier in 5 years time picoprojector will be as ubiquitous as cameras are today in cell phones, and this should not come as a surprise since there are already a few models having an embedded projector. Additionally he expects to see flexible displays in the consumer market. I am in synch with this as well and I feel these area will be driven first by eBook readers and then, more substantially but in the last part of this decade, by the replacement of labels on packages by screens to change the look and feel of products.

In ten years time Reto foresees transparent LCD patches that can be applied to glasses bringing augmented reality to everyday life. No more need for bulky glasses embedding a screen and a camera, just a transparent layer on normal lenses. That will be good for those of us wearing glasses but what about those who are fortunate enough not to need glasses (and there will be even more since laser surgery will probably displace the use of glasses in most situations…)?

Well for them there is a need to wait for ten more years. In twenty years time, according to Reto, contact lenses doubling up as screens will be available.  I wonder, however, what will be the acceptance of these lenses in the mass market. There are also technical issues (and biotechnical ones) like the powering of those lenses and the dissipation of heat.

Interactions will be served by much better gesture and voice recognition but Reto foresees in the next decade the coming of brain controlled interface. Here the issue is if some means will be found to intercept brain electrical activity without the use of cumbersome apparatus and without having to go under surgery to place electrode in the brain, somthing, I bet, very few people would look forward to.

Personally I do not see this prediction turning into reality, at least in the mass market. I can imagine a few sectors (like people with disabilities) interested in this kind of interface but these are niches and not mainstream.

It is however true that what used to be a niche in the past has become mass market. Still…I am not buying into it.