Future UI

All of us remember Tom Cruise interacting with information using his fingers in The Minority Report. With the advent of the iPhone a couple of years back, this piece of "sci-fi" came into the consumers hands and the way we interact with cellphones changed. All the major mobile manufacturers started moving towards a multi-touch UI, which has made the human-machine interface, should I say, organic. As expected this is being eagerly awaited to be implemented on the desktops and laptops we use everyday. While there are a few solutions to go around the current mouse-trackpad-stylus but they still aren't effective enough as the way we use our cellphones.
One of main issues is ergonomics - the seating position or the usability position. Holding a 13" screen in our hands will definitely be a pain in the neck and keeping it upright like our current monitors will give you a bad shoulder after prolonged use.
The mouse and keyboard have dominated this arena for decades mainly because the programs and the operating systems we use don't give us the flexibility and the nuances of multi-touch because all of our programs are very X-Y axis oriented, if developers can add in a Z axis bringing in space and depth it would change the way we receive, store and manage our data. To actually implement it, it would require a complete OS re-write, as expected and users will have to be willing enough to shift from the conventional UI to the next generation. Even if we are, the migration time will take time unless the existing OS manufactures release a new version of their OS with these features being implemented over time. In a way we can see Mac OSX going that way with the evolving Dashboard and Expose capabilities and Microsoft if they can get it right with Windows 7.

Imagine if this migration happens. It will bring in a new era of computing and the softwares we use everyday will become intuitive and will bring in more of a fun factor. We live in exciting times.
Watch this video on 10\GUI by C.Miller explaining his concept of a radicle new user interface.

10/GUI from C. Miller on Vimeo.