Microsoft has joined the wave of companies betting that 3-D is the next big thing for computing. At a recent talk at MIT, chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie said he sees the technology as an innovation that “will get people out of treating a computer as a tool” and into treating the device as a natural extension of how they interact with the world around them. Microsoft plans to introduce consumers to the change through its gaming products, but Mundie outlined a vision that would eventually have people shopping and searching in 3-D as well.
My phone, glasses, car, and gps navigator are tools that I use to interact with the world around me.
And most of those devices are independent silos that don’t/can’t talk to one another.
So let them talk to each other. Why do we need Minority Reports fantasy interface instead of proven technology?
Edited 2010-10-18 19:16 UTC
It’s a little more complicated than you think.
I’m sure all this “strategy” will end up with a product called Microsoft BOB 3D
There’s a lot of 3D if I stop staring at my computer. Across the street there are some kids in a field playing 3D baseball. It looks very realistic.
Yeah, but in a computer program, if they smash a ball with high speed in the wrong direction, you’re confident that the ball will bounce off the screen.
Whereas in reality, you can only sigh as you remember how much a window costs.
Edited 2010-10-19 07:39 UTC
This sounds remarkably like the VRML period, when people thought what web pages needed was 3D navigation. (In short, the answer was “no, what people want is an efficient and fast overview”).