Aaron Kulkis wrote: > Billie Walsh wrote: >> Aaron Kulkis wrote: >>> Fred A. Miller wrote: >>>> Gates Predicts End of the Keyboard in Final CES Keynote >>> Like most of his predictions, this too will be wrong. >>> >> >> Did you see what Microsoft calls "surface" at last years CES? The >> demonstration was pretty cool. > > And will fail miserably in a the real-world, where people do > things like put coffee-cups, magazines, and other assorted > items on their tables.
Luddite! It's intended to have things put on it. It's a completely interactive surface. Put your keys on the table. Someone else puts down a couple magazines. You move things around to get your music going. Now your keys are under a magazine. Next morning you can't find your keys. The house computer knows they are on the coffee table under the November QST. Why? Because it recognizes the magazine and your keys and can keep track of whats where. Can't find yopur cheaters? The house computer knows you left them on your desk under that manual you printed out last night. Taken to another extreme. You put down your coffee cup and the "surface" recognizes the need and heats the surface where the cup is sitting. Take off you coffee cup and put down a glass of iced tea and it now cools that spot. > > > I'm sure such things are still a few years in the future > but............ > > It's a ridiculously stupid idea to think that this sort > of thing will be in a coffee-table in every one's home At some point, if we don't destroy ourselves first or get hit by a meteor, it won't be just the coffee table. Every flat, and probably curved, surface will be interactive. TV built right into the wall because the whole wall, or any part, is the screen. Move the couch and recliner. Now the "screen" is on another wall. Make two or three screens if you want. Watch five or six football games at the same time on different parts of the wall. Put the same show on a wall in every room in the house if you want. Never count out technology. About a hundred years ago todays world would have been completely inconceivable to most people. When Star Trek came out it was beyond cutting edge. I now have a communicator laying on my desk that is smaller and has more power and features that Kirk's communicator. It's called a Motorola Razor. My car has more raw computing power than the apollo capsule. My laptop has more computer power than the space shuttle. Hell, the I-Pod probably has more computer power than the space shuttle. Technology has been increasing exponentially every few years for the past one hundred years. Why would anyone expect that to change. Barring Armageddon of course. People said the Wright brothers were "ridiculous" but Boing is getting ready to unveil a one thousand (1000) passenger airliner. People said that going to the moon was "ridiculous" but we have been there and could be there to stay if the will was there. People used to say it was "ridiculous" to think anyone would want/need a computer in their home. How many do you have. We have five that run pretty much 24/7 and have had as high as eight or ten at any given time. The only thing that's "ridiculous" are the people that say something is "ridiculous". My ol' gran-pappy used to say, "Can't never did anything." It's the people that dare to dream that make things happen. Not the ones that say everything is "ridiculous". > > It's right up there with Clippy and BOB. > > >> Then there's the Star Trek computer. Well.............maybe not quite >> THAT computer but voice interface. I've never actually tried working >> with it but I have seen demos of voice recognition software that were >> WAY impressing. Of course these demos were done with people that were >> used to the software and had spent the time to get it right. BUT, it's a >> technology that IS possible and way easier than typing. >> >> THEN, there's something that is still pretty much in the toy phase, but >> looks like a REALLY neat toy. It's looks like an ink pen. You write on >> paper then plug it into the computer and it puts what you wrote in a >> document. I've seen it at Wal Mart at Christmas time. Sells for about >> $80US. Name is "Fly...... " [ something ]. > > They've been on the market for several years now. That's an idea > that's actually useful and innovative. I just can't quite turn loose with $80US for an "ink pen". No matter how neat a toy it is. > >> >> I wouldn't count out the keyboard just yet but there are technologies >> out there that could go a long way towards moving it to the back of the >> desk. Also wouldn't say that the keyboard will ever go completely away. >> When the high tech stuff breaks the keyboard will still work. > > And more than that, among someone who is skilled, it's > far more reliable than voice recognition ever will be. > Fingers don't have drawls, twangs, or other vocal accents. > > Voice recognition software is still very much in it's infancy. For people that work with it every day it can be VERY effective. The trick right now is that you have to be one person and one computer every time. BUT, that doesn't mean that it would be impossible to improve it to the point where anyone could use it on any computer. Just that there hasn't been any "need" to do the work to get it there. Right now it's kind of a niche software. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
