possible impacts. To produce the report, the consortium considers nearly
100 technologies as well as dozens of
meaningful trends and challenges. An
internationally renowned advisory
board examines each topic in progressively more detail, reducing the set
until they reach a final short list of
technologies, trends, and challenges.
This process can provide a glimpse
into the future.
On the Horizon
Primary interaction between humans
and computers has gone largely unchanged for almost two decades. The
most common way of interacting with
computers today—windows, icons,
menus, and pointers (labeled WIMP
by some researchers)—depends mostly on the visual sense. The human directs the computer by manipulating or
reacting to changes on the computer
screen and through his or her input
via the mouse and keyboard.
In the first Horizon Report, released
in 2004, the modified Delphi technique predicted that our interaction
with computers would become more
multimodal, reflecting communication patterns among humans that
occur on many levels and via many
pathways (posture, gestures, facial expressions, etc.). And indeed, recent innovations have dramatically changed
the ways that we communicate with
technologies.
There have been remarkable devel-
opments in the commercial gaming
world, for example. Beginning with
rumble packs and gyroscopes that
provided haptic, or tactile, feedback to
the user (who actually feels vibrations
and/or resistance that is appropriate to
the simulated activity), the controllers
for motion-sensing game consoles,
such as the Nintendo Wii and Sony
Move, allow full range of motion
that simulates natural movements in
such active games as darts, golf, and
snowboarding. This concept has been
applied to computing with the iPhone
and iPad’s iOS operating system,
which allows users to scroll through
pictures, songs, and files with a flick
across the screen. Applications such
as Mover even allow users to “flick”
photos and files from one iOS device
to another.
Resources
2010 Horizon Report: http://wp.nmc.org/
horizon2010
2010 Semi-Annual Wireless Industry Survey
Results: www.ctia.org/media/press/body.
cfm/prid/1936
“Teachers’ Use of Educational Technology in
U.S. Public Schools: 2009” (2010) by Lucinda
Gray, Nina Thomas, and Laurie Lewis, National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department
of Education: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/
pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2010040
