The future of all this jazz.

Where does everyone think computing will be in a few years time?

[bhonda]

I was sat at work yesterday, partly working and partly browsing WebmasterWorld and partly daydreaming (Honestly I'm a hard-working employee!) and a strange thought struck me.

Computers have evolved from HUGE monster machines taking up entire rooms, just to output a small piece of paper with 'Hello World!' printed on it. Then it got revolutionary and got visual, using monitors (Obviously this is not a concise history of the industry!). Since then, computing got personal, and everybody got their own computer, including monitor.

What I was thinking, so many new technologies are being introduced, and are being seen as amazing breakthroughs, like all this wireless stuff, integrating the web and desktops, etc. But computing is still being output on nasty 17 inch monitors taking up huge amounts of room on your desk.

This is the only aspect of the industry that, IMHO, hasn't changed much at all - everything is still shown to the user in pixels.

What this rambling post is all about, is where does everyone think the industry/field is heading? What alternatives are there to big fat monitors? I'm not trying to steal people's ideas here, I'm just curious. Feel free to make as many stupid/insane suggestions as you want - in years to come people can look back on this post and either laugh at us or give great respect to the guy who predicted what was gonna happen 10 years before it happened?

Just remember, as my father always told me, 'Look outside the box!'.

I'll wait til somebody else makes a suggestion before I do (I see another day of me checking WebmasterWorld every half an hour!)

Cheers,
B

[Essex_boy]

for the abyss.

Honestly I dont know, things are getting to teh point where you cant really make teh electon run around faster and faster so next big thing......

Dunno

[photon]

Holographic displays--I'd really like one for my Palm; my middle-aged eyes are starting to squint at the screen.

[hannamyluv]

Implants will be in the near (next 30 years) future. People might say now that they won't go, but I think that the very same people who walk around the grocery store plugged into their ipod or cell phone will jump on just being able to think a song into thier ears or dial a number. Implant technology is in it's infancy right now (fasinating to read what they can do with it now though) but so were computers 30 years ago. I have no doubt that the two technologies will combine and revolutionize a few things. Imagine creating a website that can not only look at and hear but touch, taste and smell as well. The implant technology that's out there now suggests that this is a real possibility for the future.

[httpwebwitch]

human-device interface will evolve to include implants for some, especially those with spinal cord injuries etc. But for the rest of us, non-invasive controlling devices will evolve using retina tracking. users will learn to do simple onscreen actions like point-click-drag using non-mechanical devices...

display will also evolve in ways that don't involve physical screens, I'm thinking of medium-independent projection, holo, maybe something more like direct-to-eye projection

major advances will come quickly in two areas: portable entertainment and energy efficiency. Machines will use only a trickle of energy and be powered easily by a small solar panel

[inbound]

Retina control.. That's all we need - Retina Strain Injury. (leading onto a lucrative market for eyelid rests ;)

[snowman]

The images will be projected directly into your mind by some kind of beam.

He he, I remember reading a Gernsback prediction similar to this regarding the future of radio (this was printed in the 1920s).

A lot of the predictions came true but that one? What a stinker! ;)