The rise of natural user interface

The term natural user interface means that when a computer device which has user interface can be used without series of learning beforehand. Natural user interface, or in short NUI, dictates that user can perform series of actions / control to the device by using daily motions, movements, and gestures. The most descriptive identifier of NUI is the lack of physical keyboard and mouse.

Such good example of NUI on action is the iPhone interface. You can do a flicking hand gesture to scroll through your contacts, or pinching on picture to change its dimension. Such action is actually more natural than clicking / dragging scroll bar button. we can say that a standard GUI is of exploratory nature while NUI is more intuitive. The most common application of NUI can be seen in the multi-touch technology. See the diagram below on how the user interface has evolved since the DOS era to nowadays.

Currently, this NUI concept is being considered as the future for user interface implementation. It was all started with iPhone, and then Windows 7 soon follows. Microsoft makes an investment of $24 million on multi touch technology developed by an Iranian company, N-trig. Windows 7 then support multi touch interface by default. Not only that, Dell and HP also brought the multi touch technology to the PC and laptop market.

More and more device in the future is going to incorporate Natural User Interface concept. For the tech watcher, I am sure you already know that Windows Phone 7 is on the making, and Microsoft already released some promotional videos. As you can see, it uses a kind of user interface that we never seen before in mobile device. In my opinion, the user interface looks slicker than the one Apple has. But then, Apple has their upper-hands in the app market which tolls more than 140 thousand apps.

I predict that in the future, we will see more and more different markets use natural user interface for their application. Starting from children, where they will have a table like notepad to make drawing and do their homework. Note that I don't refer specifically to iPad is it sucks, according to my previous blog :) Imagine you are an architect, where you can make a CAD model directly by using hand gesture. Or an office worker, where you can show the draft of your document directly to your manager, and apply rectification in-place only by gesturing through the document. Take also an example of showroom, say a cellphone showroom. You can use such multi touch technology as your virtual showcase. You will not need any dummy anymore, and it can provide informations about the device at the same time. The applications are vast, and it goes as far as your imagination can. I am quite interested about it, and I have placed a question at N-trig about ordering their multi touch hardware. Well, I hope that the prices is not that expensive ;)

Disney back to the classic with The Princess and the Frog

At last, the long awaited Disney classical has come to the cinema. I just watch this cartoon movie tonight, and I must say that Disney has found its root back. Since the beginning, Disney is always the best in making such classical cartoon. I must admit that the story can be categorized as cheesy by some type of people, but heck I like cheesy stuffs. In fact, the princess and the frog is more beautiful to me than cheesy. It is something that you haven't seen in ages since the story of Aladdin, Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Snow White, or Beauty and the Beast.

The movie was made by the same team who brings Little Mermaid and Aladdin to live. The think tank behind it is John Lasetter. He is currently the chief creative officer for Disney and Pixar, and also the director of Toy Story. Apart from that, the story and the music score intertwine perfectly in this latest installment of Disney. The story is not really heavy, and perfect for children. It also introduce them with fairy tale about prince and princess, live happily ever after, and wishing upon a star. A good norm is also taught in the movie, that you must work hard to reach your dream.

The setting takes place in New Orleans in year 1920. The story revolves around a waitress by the name of Tiana. Tiana comes from poor family, and she would like to build a restaurant in New Orleans. One day, A prince from Maldonia came to visit New Orleans, and there, he got tricked by a witch doctor. The witch doctor turned him into frog, and he met Tiana by accident. Tiana tried to help him, but instead she got turned into frog too. The story goes on about their attempt to turn themselves back to human again. There are a lot of things happen in their journey. The prince is a spoiled brat who only knows how to have fun, while Tiana is a hard-working person.

So that was a bit about the story. It is simple, right? if you are a Disney lover, you gotta see this movie. It is not a 3D cartoon, and you don't need to use those 3D glasses, it is not as long as Avatar, but you will enjoy its 100 minutes duration ;)