HCI - Diversifying Day by Day

This entry will describe  how the interaction method with a computer has widely changed over the years. The following article is solely from my perspective and i might have left some invented interface techniques.

The Graphical User Interface (GUI) era was the first user friendly interaction technique. We all started to use computers using a keyboard and a mouse clicking on the various graphical icons. Interface to the computers were fairly intuitive. The GUI interface made it so easy for the users rather than solely typed commands. The GUI has been in existence for over 20 years and is being updated till date.

Early GUI

Although the keyboard and mouse are helpful in several ways, Some tasks get complicated by Clicking or Double clicking. For instance, Drawing a car or signing a signature with the help of a mouse is highly tedious.

In the last few years, Several technologies were developed which were Less error prone and rich in detail and these solved all the shortcomings of keyboard & mouse interaction. The STYLUS based interaction on tablet computers were used for precise drawings. A similar interaction method was PAPER based system that digitally capture markings made on specialized paper using a camera embedded in a pen.

Then came the development of NATURAL Interaction where the SPEECH Recognition system came into use which allowed people to issue and dictate voice commands.

The Latest advancements include the SINGLE and the MULTI TOUCH surfaces that enable interaction with the hands and the fingertips on touch-sensitive surfaces, allowing us to manipulate objects digitally as if they were physical.

Multi touch REACTABLE

One thing is very evident from all the above advancements that the HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION is diversifying day by day.

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Ashwin Rao
Personal Journal - Entry 5