Three ways of crossing the Man-Machine Boundary

“I find out what the world needs. Then I go ahead and try to invent it” (Thomas Edison)

Whether or not Apple’s new tablet announced today is a success, it seems to me that this is a major step forward in the evolution of one of three competing paradigms for human interaction with mobile devices.

The first paradigm has been around since the first portable PC’s were developed, that is, a keyboard, screen and pointing device all bundled into one package. This approach is used on most laptops and netbooks, and even some mobile devices with keyboards such as the most Blackberry devices, Nokia E72 etc . It appears to be the most appropriate for serious productive work.

The second paradigm is the touch screen, brought to a new level by the Ipad. This appears to be a more intuitive interface as the user interacts directly with the objects on the screen without the keyboard or mouse as a mediator. However, there are still some major issues with this approach,  including arm fatigue and fingers blocking out the screen. As anyone who has ever attempted to write a lengthy email on the Iphone, it is quite a slow and tedious process.

The third paradigm, which to my surprise has not received much notice, is the mobile Keyboard approach that is mainly being pushed by Asus. The idea is to have a PC bundled into a keyboard, which wirelessly communicates with a screen nearby. To my mind this is a very interesting concept, as I can imagine a future where flat screens are ubiquitous, and where we walk around with lightweight (potentially collapsible) keyboards that contain networking capability and some basic storage for our identity and preferences (presumably most of our data is stored on the cloud) and we wirelessly connect to freely available screen at work, in a cafe or in our airplane seat.

Which of these paradigms triumphs in the long run remains to be seen. Most likely the Laptop approach will continue to be used for work related applications, tablets for recreational activities such as web surfing, video, e-books etc, whilst mobile keyboard will target the gaming and home media market.

Perhaps a new paradigm will emerge that trumps all three. In this space, its interesting to look at 10/GUI, which attempts to merge the first and the 2nd. I for one look forward to interacting with mobile devices in new and interesting ways.