digg

Join DiggAbout

The Digg Crew wants to hear your thoughts!
Please take our short survey about Digg and potential feature ideas.

10 Futuristic User Interfaces

smashingmagazine.com — 10 recent developments in the field of user experience design. Most techniques may seem very futuristic. Keep in mind: they can become ubiquitous over the next years.

show profanity settings
expand all
  • jiaoziren, on 08/18/2008, -17/+10the 2D/3D gaming video is amazing! totally blow my mind.
    • leetleo, on 08/18/2008, -1/+12Did it really? Not to say the game doesn't look fun, but 2D/3D has been done before, ala Sega's Crush on the PSP
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udEywtrjBkw

      As well as paper mario on the Wii and some other recent games.
      • Renster84, on 08/18/2008, -0/+6doesn't strike me as anything special to be honest, its just clever game design
    • N01SE, on 08/19/2008, -0/+0Dude, that sh-t could have been done 10 or more years ago, that was, by far, the worst list of futuristic interfaces I have ever seen. "Drag n' Drop videos!" woah that is revolutionary, forget the fact that the hologram is created by projecting to spinning screens that will cut your hand off if you tried to touch it (that's why there is a giant pyramid over it). 180 degree view of game, didn't they make headsets that did just that way back. and the backwards Surface table. wtf.
    • stridox, on 08/19/2008, -0/+1Paper Mario?
  • Petes256, on 08/18/2008, -13/+488 diggs and down.

    Mirror?
  • BoonTobias, on 08/18/2008, -15/+8ah yes, the Aurora unit, i have been waiting for you humans to have more faith in it
  • LeviTheSmith, on 08/18/2008, -14/+2:D
  • Rewebbed, on 08/18/2008, -13/+5I think I just wet my pants. brb
  • gamben0, on 08/18/2008, -9/+4Jdome guy is creepy with that accent.
  • kreativenaim, on 08/18/2008, -10/+3Why do people digg sites that have already gone down?
    • clubikimakuri, on 08/19/2008, -0/+1so I can come back and check it later when it's back up.
  • Cirrius, on 08/18/2008, -6/+42That site sure cratered fast. Or is it a completely blank UI and I just don't understand how to interface with it?
    • XeRoX2k2, on 08/18/2008, -0/+17OMG your still using brain version 1.0!!

      you have to patch your neural net to v1.57 to see it, pfft everyone knows that
    • doshindude, on 08/18/2008, -2/+1POKE IT.
  • wkpower, on 08/18/2008, -14/+49***** THING SUCKS!!
    • worldchanger, on 08/18/2008, -3/+8we'll do it live!
      • shutaro, on 08/18/2008, -9/+32***** you, two of my friends died doing it live... In Sparta! While killing the Batman *and* drinking your milkshake! So your mom got scared and said you're moving with your auntie and uncle to bel air... OM NOM NOM!
      • synergye, on 08/18/2008, -1/+14Meme Overload
      • bluesz, on 08/19/2008, -0/+4kaboom !
      • bales2552, on 08/19/2008, -0/+3My head a'splode from all of the meme's!
      • worldchanger, on 08/23/2008, -0/+1dugg for Strong Bad reference.
    • cerulean86, on 08/19/2008, -1/+1Thanks for that, lol.
  • sjorsvb, on 08/18/2008, -7/+21im pride?
  • skelliewag, on 08/18/2008, -4/+32They've been on the front page of Digg over 60 times in the last few years but still haven't upgraded to servers that can cope with the Digg-effect? That's wasteful in my opinion. Worse still, their stuff is excellent.

    (Don't believe me about the 60+ front-pagers? Search 'smashingmagazine.com' after selecting 'By URL'. Count one page then multiply.)
  • Greengoo, on 08/18/2008, -3/+26How about we talk about the top 10 futuristic server designs?
  • Dotcommer, on 08/18/2008, -2/+6I got to try out the jdome at GDC. Wasn't too impressed with it really. It was fun, but a little disorienting.
  • Renster84, on 08/18/2008, -4/+2Maybe we're just not ment to know this stuff yet.
    damn you goverments of the world! damn you!
  • sx66gns, on 08/18/2008, -12/+6DUGG FOR BEING ABOUT TECH.
  • ed54, on 08/18/2008, -2/+9I want the 10-million pixel video wall. That must be a damn good graphics card they use.
    • LeviTheSmith, on 08/18/2008, -0/+5S3 8mb All the way
    • arjung, on 08/19/2008, -0/+1the comcast center is completely ridiculous. that screen is so big and blends into the wall that they have this video that runs that shows acrobatic dancers on ropes and it looks completely real. if you're in philly, stop by and you can just walk into the lobby and check it out.
  • ignisatra, on 08/18/2008, -4/+13Good thing Mario already did the 2D/3D thing.
    • joel8x, on 08/19/2008, -0/+1Seriously, Super Paper Mario did a great job at this last year.
  • nmnnotmyname, on 08/18/2008, -4/+3If I ever get the webpage to load I'll be sure to fire my useless comments about it.

    edit: Is it me or does that game look like Doukutsu Monogatari in 3D?
  • HillerMylife, on 08/18/2008, -2/+6Most of these are about as realistic as concept cars. They look cool, but would you really want to carry around a square foot of plate glass all day? The 2D-3D gimmick is all right, I guess, but far from futuristic. Nobody wants a huge projection dome sitting in their living room instead of a nice flatscreen. The Sparrow would require a vast infrastructure placed in every store in order to be worthwhile -- otherwise it's just another RFID chip that carries your credit cards. You can download Tilty Snake for the iPhone. Et cetera.
    • erossmu, on 08/19/2008, -0/+1If it was as functional as they said the glass screen was... omg yes.
  • galv0, on 08/18/2008, -2/+5Digg kills the internet.
  • iperalta, on 08/18/2008, -2/+2can't see it.
  • RMD78, on 08/18/2008, -2/+3MIRROR?

    I love it when sites can't cope with the Digg effect.
  • Groggie, on 08/18/2008, -3/+11The future doesn't have enough bandwidth.
  • drunknmunky1, on 08/18/2008, -2/+24Looks like Google Cache got it:
    http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:http://www.sm ...
    EDIT: Coral Cache got it too and it looks better (proper CSS and all):
    http://www.smashingmagazine.com.nyud.net:8080/2008 ...
    • likwidtek, on 08/18/2008, -0/+2You rock dude.
    • drunknmunky1, on 08/19/2008, -0/+3So can someone explain why they would dig down a mirror post? I can't say I've ever figured that one out.

      Also for anyone who wonders where everyone finds these mirrors (I used to) - greasemonkey + http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/8262 lists 6 mirrors that often find something
  • mlvassallo, on 08/18/2008, -2/+8Scooby Doo bad guys have been using that Eyeliner 3D thing for ages...
  • sayssimon, on 08/18/2008, -1/+7i like that futuristic glass
  • LoudMusic, on 08/18/2008, -4/+8Wow, Fez is a mind-*****. That'll be interesting to see in person.

    Futuristic Glass - with enough image recognition this could actually be done with an iPhone. You wouldn't be looking "through" it, but you'd be seeing what it is seeing. And with the right software it could tell you what it sees.

    Aurora - neat, but I don't know that enough people have that much going on in their lives to really make use of such a complex system.

    jDome - ha ha, did he say GAYDOME! Seriously, though, cool stuff.

    Sparrow - I just shop from my computer ...

    Tilty Snake - so?

    Brainloop - we've been seeing mind controlled computers for quite some time. They're just getting better at it. Neat I 'spoze.

    Eyeliner - ooohhh, pretty.

    faceAPI - neat stuff. now we need id, Valve, and Bungi to start using it.

    Ringo - really interesting, but it's weird enough seeing people talking to 'no one' while walking (wireless phone devices). this would just be bizarro to see walking down the street.

    Composition of the table, more cool stuff. But mounting a projector on the ceiling is no small task. The wires have to get up there too you know.

    uvLayer - maybe I don't get it. what makes this uniquely cool? it's not an editor, it's just a file manager?

    Comcast screen - seen it before - still amazing. I'm sure there are a lot of videographers that would love to produce work for that.
    • ncmusic, on 08/18/2008, -1/+1Just get Super Paper Mario on the wii to see Fez in person.
  • Bakerer, on 08/18/2008, -5/+0Lol. Maybe one day you'll get dugg UP...
  • stretta, on 08/18/2008, -2/+1dugg for monome
  • ChayD, on 08/18/2008, -1/+7I wouldn't call the Comcast thing a UI, it's just a large LED screen in their foyer that screams; "We're making soooo much money - check out the solid gold toilets in the restrooms" Still very nice, though.
  • robertawerner, on 08/18/2008, -0/+1The PSP game "Crush" uses the same 2D/3D game interface as Fez. Its a very fun puzzle game, highly recommended. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crush_(video_game)
  • TapTapper, on 08/18/2008, -1/+1zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
  • MisterEX, on 08/18/2008, -1/+1Interface or giant monitors. Same thing, I guess.
  • Infowarmachine, on 08/18/2008, -0/+1the 2d/3d game was like the little character was expoiting the nature of his 2d world ;)
  • Lynxist, on 08/18/2008, -0/+2The other one that I thought was quite a nice take on the whole desktop thing was the "bump top" interface (NO, it's not geek speak for doing the nasty on a Microsoft Surface!)

    I dug up an old link for those of you who don't know it ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0ODskdEPnQ ) and for those of you to which this is old news, don't you feel special. lol!
  • sandoz666, on 08/18/2008, -3/+3Cool, I can't wait for some of this stuff to become real! Until then I'll stick with my trusty XP and just use themes and stuff to keep it looking up to date.

    Has anybody seen this one? The designer/developer seems to have put a ton of work into it.

    http://digg.com/design/Amazing_new_sci_fi_interfac ...
    http://www.hyperdesk.com/product_details.php?p=9
  • iMoth, on 08/18/2008, -1/+1fez looks pretty o-some, i mist say.
  • infiniteshadow, on 08/18/2008, -3/+1Think about this.. A new UI for Digg Woah.
  • gurellia53, on 08/18/2008, -0/+7definitely saw it as Titty Snake
  • chaosatom333, on 08/18/2008, -0/+1This Stuff Should Definitely be on NOVA SCIENCE.
  • tama00, on 08/18/2008, -1/+1Dont you just hate it how people publish an article and have digg buttons on it and encourage their viewers to digg then as soon as it does get on the front page like they wanted the site goes down.
  • KEVIN167, on 08/18/2008, -0/+3This guy hacked his Wii to do the same things as faceAPI.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcbiX2UnKyI&feature ...
    • Flipperbw, on 08/19/2008, -0/+1they mention johnny lee. also, this method does not require any hardware attached to the user
  • JohnKappa, on 10/25/2008, -0/+1Is that Hugh Jackman's voice on the faceAPI vids?
    http://www.seeingmachines.com/faceAPI.html
  • padraic2112, on 08/19/2008, -1/+2where's bumptop?
  • fudged71, on 08/19/2008, -0/+3Holy ***** the comments on digg have gone downhill. How many comments here are actual intelligent comments about the submission? like... 2 ?
    Here is my contribution.
    A bunch of these don't even count as user interface. The comcast wall? The is no user interaction. Same with some of the others. That snake prototype is just the snake game, controlled by tilt-sensors. Have we not seen that on, say, the iPhone? However, there were some neat things on the page, so it wasn't exactly a downer. It is cool to see that you can just use a regular projector on that dome.
  • ChrisRonin, on 08/19/2008, -0/+2Only the tabletop and face tracking interfaces are really all that viable. The others are just too out there or complicated to be useful. User interface needs to become SIMPLER, not more complex.

    For example, that Aurora thing was one of the most godawful things I've seen. There's way too much signal to noise to be even remotely useful with things scattered all over the screen. On top of that the radial thing means hidden interface which always takes long to discover and use. Beyond that it's dependent on fully compliant use of semantics, and look how well that's gone...

    The game doesn't really count as an "interface", at least not in a strict sense.

    IMO the best so far is Jeff Han's table, with Microsoft Surface, the Wii and the iPhone close behind. And they all still have a long way to go for true dead-simple usability, but they're way ahead of everything else out there.

    The best interface needs little explanation or instruction. It should be intuitive to be understood easily by a 5 or 50-year old.
  • muttsuki, on 08/19/2008, -0/+1promising.
    im excited. yay future!!
  • YancyFryJr, on 08/19/2008, -1/+1http://www.kokoromi.org/fez
  • junkstuff1, on 08/19/2008, -1/+1As far as FaceAPI goes, this is something that hasn't been implemented on a large scale yet but it certainly isn't new. Bradski published a paper regarding "perceptual user interfaces" in 1998 and tested it with Quake. He had the Z-axis as well.

    Two years ago I even did exactly the same thing in my computer vision class. Once we implemented it we were disappointed because it really isn't as cool as it looks like it could be.
    • koninc, on 08/20/2008, -0/+0You're saying that Johnny Lee's stuff isn't cool?
  • mareksoon, on 08/19/2008, -0/+2Isn't "we're not getting this much rain" ("Jill" in the demo of Aurora) also watching the 'ectoplasm' Southpark episode?
  • Fetching more discussions...
    Show 51 - 56 of 56 discussions
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.