|
The coming decade will see a radical shift in the way we think about digital displays: what they're capable of, what they're good for and what - fundamentally - they mean. This shift will derive chiefly from new forms of interactivity enabled by sensing, computation and networking integrated at the device level into future screens. But most or all of the raw technology components necessary for the transition are already extant today in the form of the ‘spatial operating environment,' the commercial platform that is the real-world successor to the gestural computing technologies envisioned in the film "Minority Report" (which, despite nearing its 10th anniversary, still provides one benchmark by which the evolution of display technologies is popularly measured). The discussion will use examples from this unusual fictional-into-real UI (User Interface) design trajectory to sketch some of the field's most important and imminent advances, as well as their current and future impact on the world of digital signage.
John Underkoffler is founder and chief scientist of Los Angeles-based Oblong Industries, developer of the g-speak Spatial Operating Environment. Much earlier, during 15 years at MIT's Media Laboratory, he was responsible for innovations in optical and electronic holography, novel animation systems, several large-scale visualization techniques, and the I/O Bulb and Luminous Room systems. His applications and installations are in use at commercial and educational facilities and have been shown in galleries and museums and at festivals; the human-machine interfaces he's devised over the past three decades remain widely influential. Interstitially, he has been science and technology advisor to numerous films, including "Minority Report," "The Hulk (A. Lee)," "Aeon Flux," "Stranger Than Fiction" and "Iron Man." He currently also serves as adjunct professor in the USC School of Cinematic Arts and on the board of the University Art Museum at California State University, Long Beach.
Industries:
Advertising Agencies
Brand Marketers
Digital Out-of-Home Networks
Systems Integration/Installation
|