In a recent post Golan Levin writes about how adding the term “computational” to various non-science fields allows you to imagine all sorts of new subjects. Specifically, he “created” Computational Gastronomy, only to realize that the field sort-of actually exists (!), and so started an interesting list of articles and research in the emerging field. That got me thinking about how we use, or fantasize about using, technology to interact with food — specifically how…
 
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Iron Man 2 opens today! And Engadget has posted a great collection of pictures and videos of interfaces that are used the film. Sure, we’ve seen a lot of this before — multi-touch Surface-like tables, Star Trek transparent screens, complex layered windows (any standard windowing os — mixed with a bit of old-school Unix), micro-projectors, and even a little magic — but who’s to say it’s not fun? The NYTimes review of the film describes…
 
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Check out this interesting video from Microsoft Research on using a pen and touch together in an interface. It’s part of Microsoft Research’s Manual Deskterity project. Running on Microsoft Surface, the demo has some really cool examples of how a specific pointing device can be combined with the more general input of touch. Using the pen to write, to peel copies, as an exacto knife, a straight edge, and lots more. At some point the…
 
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In What Movie UIs Say About the Future, Tony Walt reviews a variety of interface types featured in some recent movies. His discussion on Complexity was particularly interesting — especially in the context of the iPad and its move towards simplicity: I’ve noticed that UIs in feature films are continually getting more elaborate and complex. Meanwhile, though, real-world interfaces are getting more simple and intuitive. It seems an odd contradiction that the futuristic UIs we…
 
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Last year I was in London with some friends and we ended up having dinner at Inamo in SoHo. They’ve developed an interactive ordering system that uses your entire table as a display, using ceiling-mounted projectors The basic dilemma with these sorts of restaurants is that the novelty, whatever it may be, is what attracts people to the restaurant. And because the novelty is unlikely to become a standard in all restaurants, it draws attention…
 
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