Devil's Advocate: Ingenious interfaces

Are we missing chances to find better human-computer interfaces? Martin Brampton is given a history lesson...

A couple of weeks ago, I was musing about the many technologies that have been used for writing. And casting doubt on the idea that we should take handwriting as the 'natural' interface to computers. One reader sent me a very interesting email that significantly added to my knowledge of the history of books.

My correspondent pointed out that I had forgotten to mention papyrus, the reed based material used as paper particularly in Egypt. Commonly kept in the form of rolls, it might have been acceptable for a book that was to be read from beginning to end but must have been mightily inconvenient for reference purposes. Its durability was suspect, too, involving frequent copying.

I wondered about how the ancient world coped with the laborious process of constantly copying books by hand. My helpful reader came to the rescue with a reminder that slave labour was quite plentiful. Moreover, as she no doubt correctly suggested, writing out books over and over again was a much more attractive proposition than rowing a trireme. Especially if the job was anything like it is portrayed by Hollywood.

The particularly striking point that she made was to emphasise the revolutionary impact of the codex, the predecessor of the familiar book, a collection of pages joined and hinged at one edge. Not only did this development make written information much more convenient to access, it also opened up possibilities for new and more durable materials. For these reasons, she argues that the codex is a technological turning point, perhaps on a par with the introduction of printing with movable type or maybe the internet.

When we think of medieval books, we tend to imagine the intricate works of art that have been preserved in the shape of illustrated bibles and other religious works. Here my informative reader remarks that while huge effort was devoted to such artefacts, more mundane books would have been copied using simpler and smaller scripts. A single copyist could have completed them in a few weeks.

It all goes to show just how much effort and ingenuity have gone into things that we nowadays take entirely for granted. For that matter, it shows that if we want to emulate the innovations of the past, we must avoid being hidebound by tradition. Whatever the current technique, there is always the possibility of finding something better.

That takes us back to the computer interface, where I want to pursue the point that we should be looking for genuinely new techniques rather than simply finding ways to ape familiar processes on computers. Recognising handwriting or speech is all very well but it may well be that we really need something altogether different.

An example of the sort of thing that seems to be pushing boundaries is the KeyBowl Orbitouch, on show at the ICES show in Las Vegas recently. It is a PC keyboard with a difference. It has no keys. Instead of keys, it has two large, oddly shaped bulges. The user has to twist these into different positions to identify individual letters. I have to admit that, as described, it sounds unlikely to catch on, although it could have uses for people unable to use a standard keyboard.

Yet, if creative people keep coming up with ideas that are really different from the old familiar devices, sooner or later we are quite likely to find something that will have mass appeal and revolutionise the way we interface to computers. Until then, I remain sceptical that any one approach should be counted right or 'natural'.

** Martin Brampton is a director and founder of Black Sheep Research (http://www.black-sheep-research.co.uk ), an independent consultancy providing research, writing and speaking services on a wide range of business and technology subjects. Martin was previously a director at Bloor Research, and has worked with IT as a user and analyst for over 20 years. He is a frequent contributor to silicon.com's weekly Behind the Headlines TV programme and can be contacted at silicon@black-sheep-research.co.uk.