Don't get me wrong, I am absolutely for interfaces in which the body
is the affordance and you don't have to learn any controls. That's
what made many of those camera-based systems (and games like the
EyeToy) so potent and has been a large part of the Wii's success. You
don't really have to 'learn' the Wiimote much, you wave it about and
the thing on screen waves about in the same way.
But that's the problem with the whole gloves and special gestures
thing. It's impossible, and unfair, to say without using the thing of
course, but the Oblong system doesn't look all that intuitive. It
looks like you have to learn a whole bunch of quite special gestures.
I don't use the mouse gestures plug-in in Firefox, for example,
because I can't be bothered and keyboard shortcuts are, for me,
quicker. On the other hand I know quite a few Flame/Inferno (and other
post production system) users who are very used to doing all sorts of
stuff with pen and tablet gestures.
I still think that the best interfaces are the ones that become almost
invisible and I think that's why multitouch often works so well -
you're not really interacting with an interface, you're interacting
directly with the content. (Although of course those gestures are
designed). As soon as I have to put on some funny gloves or a headset
or whatever it is, you've made a barrier and made the interface the
'thing' not the thing you are interacting with.
Like I say - smell the glove. :-)
Best,
Andy
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Andy Polaine
Research | Writing | Strategy
Interaction Concept Design
Education Futures
Twitter: apolaine
Skype: apolaine
http://playpen.polaine.com
http://www.designersreviewofbooks.com
http://www.omnium.net.au
http://www.antirom.com
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