Fifteen years ago, Apple Computer released a video depicting their vision for the future of computing. Blogger Jon Udell discusses where we are in relation to the concept and we’re surprisingly close to the ideal presented.
In the video, there is an interface based on conversation with an avatar that picks up context. We’re still a long way from that, but I can right now use conversational language to command my computer to do tasks like switch programs or delete emails. The computer also has a camera that allows video instant messaging, just like my iSight video camera and iChat software. And on and on it goes, including wireless networking and Internet searching and more.
While we’re still a ways off from the computer predicted in the video, it is amazing how far we’ve come in the last 15 years. In 1988 this was science fiction, but now it’s more science than fiction. Fifteen years from now will it be just science?
