I’m in love . . . with the future of GUI.  This future that dismisses carpal tunnel syndrome and gets the whole body involved in digital data. 

I see it as liberation.  How tired are we all from hour after hour of desk + computer screen + mouse?  Life is best experienced, not watched on a screen and awkwardly shifted through with a cursor. 

Thanks to Benoit (remember Mr. Flashy and Capture the Motion Commotion?), today I came across Oblong’s g-speak spatial operating environment video.  Turn up your volume and listen well to fully get into the emotion of this video.  Does it make you fall in love as well?

Notice the sign language used to interact with the data.  It looks a bit like a free-style modern dance performance.  I love it because it links our most powerful communication system, body language, to the power of computers.  And as Richard pointed out in his blogpost Say It in 3D!, body language is our natural 3D language. 

I went nuts when I read Oblong’s origins webpage.  They really go full out to communicate differently.  They are profound, yet understandable.  Here’s a tiny sample of excerpts from the orgins link that struck me:

Substantial swaths of human brain are dedicated to understanding space, understanding geometry, understanding physical structure. A cartoon of a messy desk surface doesn’t much tax these swaths. The swaths can work harder, ought to be made to. You propose that information — and maybe especially the newly-blooming internet — has a topology but not yet a topography.

 . . . and  . . .

This does not mean that the graphics should look more like the real world. Your brain does not actually care about that. It means that perhaps the graphics should behave more like the real world.

If you’re into this kind of stuff, or even if you don’t think you are but liked The Minority Report, you’ll really dig reading about Luminous Rooms and the I/O Bulb. 

What I like best is that Oblong doesn’t present itself as About Us.  Oblong on its deepest level is About You.  YOU are the interface.  You Are Oblong. 

Hoot if you like this too!

Best,

Kate