Freak Control: On computing without keyboards

There have been some interesting posts recently demonstrating and discussing control of devices beyond the keyboard. First, every casual gamer’s dream has now come true: you can play Angry Birds using your brain as a controller. The implications for reaching an even higher vegetative state state of flow are simply staggering.

Second, one story that illustrates Apple’s genius in this arena and a second that questions it. If you missed All Things D’s story about the moment that Apple and Microsoft’s touch interface dreams diverged, chug it into your Instapaper queue right now – it’s a great reminder of how far we’ve come in such a short time, and about how Microsoft continued a strange fumble with their Surface platform while Apple managed this transition from practice with the iPhone to full-on victory with the iPad. (I touched on the consumer side of the success of practicing with the iPhone’s interface as readying the public for the concept of the iPad in my Perspective piece a year or so ago.)

Third, an interesting rant from Matt Honan at Gizmodo claims that Siri’s hands-off interface presents the nuanced user experience we have come to expect from Apple. Gruber agrees, and I have to say I do much of the time as well.

And finally, a group in Tokyo is turning everyday objects into interactive devices using projectors and cameras. I particularly like their turning a banana into a functioning telephone through the use of object detection and focused sound beams.

Happy snacking – maybe you can read this whole post without touching your computer. Just think “scroll up” really hard…