Matt Loney's Blog
What it says on the box
Monday 29 January 2007, 2:45 PM
BumpTop - putting physics in the desktop
It looks good, though as with all things tactile you only really know when you have tried it for yourslef. I've tried many desktop metaphores - from creating one from scratch in Hyercard on an Apple Mac, through HP's NewWave, and then into 3D ones with Sun's Project Looking Glass. On the hypecycle, few get past the trough of disillusionment. I rather hope this one does: I like the look of it not because it is 2.5D but because it looks very useful for organising files, a job who's boredom factor frequently defeats me.
Alternatively,, try the hip hop version.
PreviousComments on this post
That is extremely interesting. It would be good to see something like this developed further - are you watching Microsoft or Apple? We don't want translucent windows, we need some blue skies thinking like this to truly make computing understandable to the masses.
Genius.
While it may just seem like graphical candy I know that such a system would help older people I know, who struggle with computer concepts, to visualise files and such easier than they do with standard Windows icons. Telling them "that's a picture" doesn't help much when it has a small unrecognisable logo or a squashed thumbnail that won't immediately trigger the "picture" idea in their minds.
The only things I have seen that works in a similar way are game menu screens/inventories, when finding something without it getting in the way of your primary 'purpose' (playing the game) is advantageous. Something as interesting as this would definately help Microsoft sell the nest gen OS the way that 95 sold. WinV, WinVis, Vis. What should the shorthand for Vista be I wonder?
The next stage is video hand gesture recognition, so you're not limited to communicating with the metaphor through the equivalent of a pointy stick. We have hands, not wands.
