MetaFilter posts tagged with hci

Upload this to your alien spacecraft.

seanyboy — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 08:36:34 -0800

This man makes the user interfaces you see in films. (Video)
Bonus: Top 10 Worst Portrayals of Technology in Film

Bouncy Laser Awesomeness

nfg — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 07:10:37 -0800

Awesome Interactive Laser Demo (via) Some technical info on the implementation can be found here and here, some background on the concepts behind the original installation are here, and a cool musical application here.

Computing In Dark Rooms

migurski — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 19:01:54 -0800

Courtesy of Daniele Gallifa's Mentegrafica, a video demonstration of Multi-User Interaction using Handheld Projectors. An update to the classic Ghostbusters toy, this set of position-aware hand held projectors lets users share information by shining light onto walls. Some of the smart details in the video include: sharing calendars by overlapping light from two projectors, adjoining projections to create larger screens, and blurring private information when outsiders are nearby. No mention of applicability to first person shooters.

GUIs in Spaaaaace

blahblahblah — Wed, 02 May 2007 11:49:50 -0800

Computer interfaces from science fiction. Some of these interfaces (such as Minority Report) may be close to reality, while others are are being built by fans, and many more are just bad ideas. And, for reality's sake, there are also references to Windows in science fiction. See also this presentation about biometrics in science fiction [note: mp4 movie, the presentation starts about 20% in, and features Leprechaun 4: Leprechauns in space.].

Web 2.0 on a Desktop (This 2.0 reference will only work once)

phyrewerx — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 21:26:20 -0800

The Symphony OS. Microsoft may have tired something like this before, but it certainly doesn't look as pretty. This beta linux distro is sporting something called the Mezzo Desktop environment. Under its hood resides a http server and a Mozilla renderer which allows you to run any applications coded with HTML, Javascript and PERL. Think small "Web 2.0" applications on your own computer or more Dashboard widgets for tracking your FedEx packages. You might not get your extended family on to the alterative OS bandwagon, but a different conceptualization of the desktop never hurts. Instructions on how to get it running on Ubuntu are here.

Usability frogs

carter — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 09:26:15 -0800

Frog Review - Talking frogs review websites.

Please leave a hazelnut after the tone

NinjaPirate — Fri, 26 Aug 2005 03:15:55 -0800

Do you suffer from mobile telephone calls at inopportune times? Could you use a cute PA to take calls for you while gaming, or asleep? A dissertation project from MIT by HCI specialist Stefan Marti may have your solution: Cellular Squirrel.

Of course you will always want to talk to people who are thinking the same things as you, so Cellular Squirrel waves and moves about rather than making a sound. His oddly bulbous figure makes use of "socially strong non-verbal cues like gaze, posture, and gestures, to alert and interact with the user" rather than intrusive alerts in order to minimise user stress and social disruption.

Cellular intermediaries also come in two other flavours: "a parrot and a cute bunny"

World's First HCI Rap

joshua — Mon, 09 Feb 2004 00:40:36 -0800

World's First HCI Rap from OK/Cancel, the human computer interaction/interface design comic.

pascal — Wed, 11 Jul 2001 11:17:33 -0800

Modern computing born... film at 11.
"On December 9, 1968, Douglas C. Engelbart and the group of 17 researchers working with him in the Augmentation Research Center at Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, CA, presented a 90-minute live public demonstration of the online system, NLS, they had been working on since 1962. The public presentation was a session in the of the Fall Joint Computer Conference held at the Convention Center in San Francisco, and it was attended by about 1,000 computer professionals. This was the public debut of the computer mouse. But the mouse was only one of many innovations demonstrated that day, including hypertext, object addressing and dynamic file linking, as well as shared-screen collaboration involving two persons at different sites communicating over a network with audio and video interface."

holloway — Wed, 11 Apr 2001 03:43:18 -0800

"You are about to activate your first gesture command in Opera. A gesture command is activated by pressing the right mouse button, and while holding it down, performing a simple movement with the mouse, and then releasing the button"... such as left going back a page, or down opening a new window. Aliens bless gesture interfaces, and Molyneux.

Brilliantcrank — Fri, 06 Oct 2000 22:27:03 -0800

Cliques in chat! This is one of the most unique chat apps I have ever come across. What do they serve in the food over at MIT anyway?

efader — Sat, 08 Apr 2000 20:58:47 -0800

Why tab based interfaces suck This site finally fell into interface hell. Originally they used tabs as navigation and still are now... BUT it doesn't work... Watch... every ecommerce company that copied its interface will also fall into the same interface hell... The others include ebags.com, urbanfetch and more....