One of the main gauges as to how advanced a technology is, has to be its user input/output. Look at the original Star Trek – those buttons now seem as outdated as small pox, and that screen Spock looks into? I not only have one at home, but mine is HD. The step-up to the next generation’s glitzy touch-screens is definitely noticeable, giving a clean sophisticated feel to a spaceship that in the 80s at least, felt as advanced as James Bond’s invisible car.
Cut to real life and the most recent input to break into to the mainstream is probably the touch screen. Although widespread now, simply comparing even the older resistive touch models to the rubber push buttons of those from the 90’s shows a great leap in innovation (and arguably, practicality). Show any denim sporting, 90s man with curtains a touch screen phone, and he’d assume it was a prop from the X-files (God I had to think hard for that one!). What’s next? Of course, as much as I’d like to pretend I am the font of all knowledge, I am unfortunately not, and have no idea as to what we will be using as inputs for our gadgets 5 or 10 years down the technological line; however, I thought I’d share with you the concept of skinput.
