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Natural User Interfaces: Voice, Touch and Beyond

Project Natal and other natural user interface products that Microsoft is working on are helping usher in a new generation of human-computer interaction.  Bill Buxton first used a computer in 1971. It changed his entire perspective on life.  Even four decades ago, Buxton could picture a future enhanced by technology. Eventually he came to dream about humans and computers having close interaction – being able to operate a computer by gesturing at it or by touching it, or having a computer recognize your voice and face.  Bill Buxton, a principal researcher for Microsoft, talks about working on new systems that allow people to work more naturally with computers.  “I’m excited more now than I have been since I’ve been in the business because I can taste it now,” says Buxton, a principal researcher at Microsoft since 2005. “Stuff I’ve been working towards and thinking about and dreaming about for 20 or 30 years is now at the threshold of general usage.”  Touch, face- and voice-recognition, movement sensors – all are part of an emerging field of computing often called natural user interface, or NUI. Interacting with technology in these humanistic ways is no longer limited to high-tech secret agents and Star Trek. Buxton says everyone can enjoy using technology in ways that are more adaptive to the person, location, task, social context and mood.  He sees a bright future in which entire “ecosystems” of devices and appliances co-exist with humans in a way that makes life better for people. Microsoft, with researchers like Buxton, is a leader in developing these new, more natural ways of interacting with computers. The company will showcase some of this technology at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week.  Project Natal, which turns game players into human controllers, is among the most high profile examples of the coming shift in technology, Buxton said. Microsoft announced at CES this week that the Xbox gaming device will be available in stores this coming holiday season.  Project Natal is the code name for an Xbox 360 add-on that incorporates face, voice, gesture, and object recognition technology to give users a variety of ways to interact with the console, all without needing a controller. It’s a “delightful” new way to spend time with friends and family playing games, watching TV shows and movies, and listening to music, says Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division.  Bach says Project Natal and other NUI-related products will offer more natural ways to interact with video games, computers and other technology.  “For me, when people talk about touch and voice technologies, or anything related to Natural User Interface, it all comes back to what’s most natural for the users,” Bach says. “That’s why you’ll see a variety of user interfaces that are considered natural, because each one is tuned to the environment in which it operates.”  The holiday 2010 release of Project Natal will come exactly one decade after the first Xbox console hit the shelves in the holiday season of 2000.  “Natal is a next-generation experience that we’re actually delivering this generation,” says Aaron Greenberg, director of product management for Xbox 360. “And they don’t even need to buy a new console.”    August de los Reyes, principal director of user experience for Microsoft Surface, says says natural interfaces are just the latest in a long line of evolving human-computer interaction.    Project Natal and other Microsoft-focused NUI projects represent a fundamental shift in the way people can interact with technology. The term Natural User Interfaces actually describes a wide-ranging category of technology that is perhaps most easily identified by what it lacks – the traditional methods of input including mice, keyboards, and controllers.  The goal of natural interfaces is not to make the keyboard and mouse obsolete, says August de los Reyes, principal director of user experience for Microsoft Surface. Instead, NUI is meant to remove mental and physical barriers to technology, to make computing feel more intuitive, and to expand the palette of ways users can experience technology.   Continue: Natural User Interfaces Voice, Touch and Beyond Project Natal and other natural user interface p
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