Skip keyboard / mouse / monitor

Computers, handheld devices, wireless. All are evolving so fast now. Services like Google Maps (or hitta.se) are incredibly useful.

But we can't access them when we want to. Apple is showing where the problem is, first with iPhone (bigger screen, yay!) and now recently with iPad (even bigger screen, yay again!). But the iPad doesn't fit in your pocket. The iPhone does. So somewhere in between those two lies a limiting factor of screen size vs portability. Can't have both.

What about a foldable electronic-paper-type screen? That could solve the portability vs size issue, but it's still not good for notifications. Whenever I use my computer, it notifies me about a bunch of stuff: I get new mail, RSS feeds, Facebook comments, twits, Skype, whatever.

What if the foldable paper is combined with a little in-ear bluetooth gadget which goes Ping! when something interesting happens? That could work, it's simple enough, but it's still just a notification - it's not the information itself.

I think the only solution is glasses, just like the sci-fi guys have been saying for decades. There are already models out there for commercial use, but they're clunky. They need to be nearly as light as a pair of sunglasses. And their major advantage is of course that they support Augmented Reality, for example like the information accessible to the British police in Charles Stross novel "Halting State". We already have this kind of overlay e.g. in helmets for air force pilots. We've had it in "HUDs" in computer games for ages.

But that's just the screen part. How to input data? Before we get to a point where we can think words directly into hardware, which will probably take even longer, we'll need some other interface which involves fingers. Speech is imprecise and cumbersome; it's like using "vi" for editing: Now I'm telling the device what to do, now I'm just asking where the gluten-free bread is in the supermarket. It forces two contexts on the speaker and that's not user-friendly.

Maybe the Sixthsense idea of Pranav Mistry is a viable way forward. I really like his thinking. It's simple: A camera, a projector, and a mirror. And your own hands. If the projector gets useful enough it could potentially be a rival for glasses, as far as a screen goes.

Obstacles are:

- Miniaturization, as always. Whatever this is, it can't be cumbersome to wear.
- Energy: We need cheap, small, rechargeable energy sources for commercial use.
- Input interface: Either gestures, projected keyboard. They're both possible, the trick is to make them user-friendly enough for a mass market to bother learning the new paradigm.
- Economy: As always, the things must be cheap. Like a mobile phone or cheaper.

When will people interact with the Internet without monitors, keyboards, or mice in their everyday life? This will probably take a while... I'm guessing 2025. Will This Happen?

Update 2016: VR was the biggest topic at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year. Oculus Rift, Samsung, Google and Microsoft are all marketing VR/AR goggles. I believe they will hit the trough of disappointment one more time before taking off, but we are still on track for 2025!

Ubiquitous self-bio-monitoring

We can take EKG, EEG, pulse, tension, and a lot of other measurements. We have lie detectors. We can test ourselves for blood sugar rates. We have the idea of neurofeedback. We've had Polar pulse meters for a long time.

We have also had a clear miniaturizing trend for a long time, and we're starting to make more and more things able to communicate wirelessly.

With all this stuff going on, it feels logical that we'll eventually have a portable self-meter device which can give us constant feedback on our physical (and eventually brain?) state.

First, because it's fun to know. Second, because it can help significantly to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and with the current trend towards obeseness in the world that's sorely needed. And of course, it can be integrated with medical care to enable remote monitoring of patients, providing a detailed log on entering a hospital, or what have you.

I see three four big issues to overcome:

- Integrity; the persistent log of the information must be very secure, as would any wireless publication interface (e.g. sending signals from a monitor to a mobile phone). It would probably not be desirable if our insurance company got their hands on the info, for example. (Or would it - is it correct/ethical to withhold things from your insurance company?)

- Interface: How to present the information in a way which is unintrusive but "always-on"? Visual, aural, ...? Send to mobile phone, show in augmented-reality goggles, beep in ear, or what? The mobile phone feels like the most obvious short-term solution.

- Miniaturization: For this to really become popular, the detector component must be small enough to be carried without discomfort; a wrist watch or so. How to fit all the required components into there? Or further on, when we get that far, the various detectors could just be implanted in suitable places in the body. If so, it would be very nice with batteries that can be recharged via induction. Like my electric toothbrush. Or via kinetic energy.

- Economy: Can this be manufactured for a suitably low cost and in a presentation package which makes it attractive to the general public?

What's a likely timespan for every man's gadgets like this to appear... 10 years? Let's aim for 2020. Will This Happen?

Update 2016: Fitbit, Garmin, Polar, etc and sensors in mobile phones are now becoming mainstream. We're making good progress!