HIDs

May 11, 2011 9:43 AM

Over the past 30 years, designer, writer and Principal Researcher for Microsoft Research Bill Buxton has collected input and interactive devices whose designs he found "interesting, useful or important. In the process, he has assembled a good collection of the history of pen computing, pointing devices, touch technologies, as well as an illustration of the nature of how new technologies emerge." This week, he unveiled his collection at the Computer-Human Interaction conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. An extensive gallery has been posted online with images and notes at The Buxton Collection.

Here's a small sample at The Atlantic: "The Crazy Old Gadgets That Presaged the iPod, iPhone and a Whole Lot More"

posted by zarq (6 comments total)

> "...he is now exhibiting in public for the first time at a conference in Vancouver, British Columbia this week."

Well heck, that's got to be SIG CHI, which my partner's at this very moment. So close...
posted by ardgedee at 10:20 AM on May 11, 2011

I just returned from CHI (participated in two workshops over the weekend, but have deadlines that meant I couldn't stay for the whole conference). I can confirm that the Buxton Collection is at CHI, second floor, in a very cool glassed-in room. I didn't get to really go in and wander around, but I gawked through the windows between talks. Glad to see it written up here!

Also, apparently they're going to open the conference/exhibits/videos to people from the surrounding community on at least one evening, for a relatively low fee (hopefully "low relative to your average museum exhibit," not "low relative to the cost of attending a conference") . If you're in BC, might be worth checking out. They mentioned it at the plenary, but I forget the evening, and I can't find any mention of this on the conference website.
posted by Alterscape at 11:01 AM on May 11, 2011

I was at a conference where I, along with about 600 other people, went to see Dr. Dr. Dr. Bill speak. There had been some confusion and he walked into the room thinking he was there to do a small, informal panel. He turned his one slide into a flawless, one-hour talk and 30 minute Q&A session that ended in a standing ovation. He's a fascinating guy.
posted by DarlingBri at 12:21 PM on May 11, 2011

Guest passes for the conference are available - providing access to the show floor and exhibits, but not the presentations - but at $250 a head it's a bit too dear. The open house event is $10, but I don't know if it includes access to the Buxton Collection.
posted by ardgedee at 12:21 PM on May 11, 2011

Though the mouse was invented in 1965, it wasn't widely used until 1995 with the release of Windows 95.

Except for all those Macs and DOS machines in the ten years prior, sure.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:53 PM on May 11, 2011

Blazecock Pileon: " Except for all those Macs and DOS machines in the ten years prior, sure."

I think the key phrase there is "widely used."

Macs never cornered the majority of the PC market. Dos machines didn't require mice. Even popular PC programs like Wordperfect and Microsoft Word were keyboard-driven.
posted by zarq at 6:55 AM on May 12, 2011