Kiran, a good old friend send me an email with a link to a video on Human Computing Interface (HCI) researcher – Jeff Han, from Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, NYU. Watch the video at:
http://ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer.cfm?key=j_han&flashEnabled=1
While we strive to achieve better user experience using Web 2.0/Ajax, Windows Vista Aero, Mac Aqua – maybe there is a way to leap frog and stop thinking in terms of the mouse and keyboard. We should be thinking HAL or the computer on the Star Ship Enterprise (don’t tell me StarTrek did not at least arouse your curiosity!)
My take on the connected world is ubiquitous computing – everything is connected and computing devices are a natural extension of your everyday life. When you use something so naturally, that you do not give it a second thought – that is UI perfection. There was an interesting project called “Aura” from Carnegie Mellon that I came across a few years ago. Not sure what the status of the project is now, but you can find out more at:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~aura/
HCI and wireless networking (my area of research) and a lot more will go into realizing the “true” digital world seamless.
Dream On!