Natural Interfaces: Unready

Conceptually, I'm intrigued by the notion of natural interfaces - being able to escape the tyranny of mouse and keyboard, and use "natural" motions and the spoken word to be able to communicate with a machine has a certain wondrous glimmer about it. That is, until you actually consider what it would look like.

To be specific, I saw a kid in a store playing with a demo video game console that eliminated the controller by using a camera to recognize the player's body. After a brief configuration, the game could track the movement of his body, so that by moving about in space he could control his avatar in the game. He seemed to be having a blast - but to any observer, he looked like he was having a seizure until you got close enough to see what he was actually doing.

I can't imagine that the same technology could be put to more practical application, at least not without hilarious results. Imagine an otherwise distinguished-looking person standing in front of an ATM on a public street, gesticulating like a spastic wizard in an attempt to use "natural" gestures to communicate "I want to withdraw fifty dollars from my checking account."

Of course, you could use language instead of gesture, but depending on where the ATM is located, it might not be wise to announce to anyone within earshot that you will very soon have cash in your pocket. But that's more tragic and less funny than watching someone do an awkward impromptu dance routine in a public place to perform a simple task.

I also question how "natural" the natural interfaces actually are. I am at this moment sitting in front of an Apple computer, with a "magic" trackpad that is collecting dust because it requires me to learn a number of un-natural and un-intuitive motions to perform simple tasks. Maybe it's just that I'm accustomed to using the scroll-wheel on my mouse that makes it seem awkward to have to learn a new method of navigating a Web page.

And in fairness, each gesture seems very simple - scroll by stroking the pad with two fingers (not one, and not three) and use a pinching motion to make something smaller - but the fact that I can already do these tasks easily makes the language of trackpad gestures into something I would have to devote time to learning and become accustomed to. I don't accept the notion that these are natural or intuitive motions ... I don't "naturally" sweep two fingers across a piece of paper to move it around on a physical desktop.

Using gestures means having to learn an entirely different and unfamiliar physical language. I think I would type much slower if I had to spell out words with sign language than merely type them into a keyboard (admittedly, I might be more accurate if I were slowed down a bit) - though I might initially be amused by the novelty of doing something "different" it would not ultimately be a preference due to the awkwardness and inconvenience.

To tie up this meditation, I am still intrigued and amused by the notion of natural interfaces, and hopeful that something better will come along - but my sense is that some technologies are being rushed to market that are not yet baked out quite enough and remain inconvenient to use and embarrassing to be seen using.