"Humanizing the Interface" Is the Challenge of the '90s
 
Microbytes Daily News Service
Copyright (c) 1989, McGraw-Hill, Inc.
"How will new microprocessors make a difference on desktops?"
That was the question posed to a panel of computer experts and
industry analysts at last week's Personal Computer Outlook
conference in San Francisco. Certainly, computer hardware
designers will continue to develop faster and faster CPUs,
increasing the number of MIPS and megaflops. But what will users
do with all that processing power? One possibility, maybe even
necessity, is to tap into that power to go beyond the keyboard
and mouse and create computer interfaces that are truly revolu-
tionary.
 
"I believe within two to three years we'll see single-chip
250-MIPS processors available as improvements in CMOS and
package technologies continue," said Andrew Heller, of
Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, a computer consulting
firm. "At that kind of power you start to think about
humanization of the interface, not just being user-friendly,"
he said. "We'll see things along the line of improved speech
and handwriting recognition, and visualization."
 
Other panel members echoed these sentiments. Michael Homer,
Apple's director of product marketing, said that whether CPUs
operate at 25, 100, or 1000 MIPs, the challenge comes in
designing new interfaces, including continuous speech recognition
and speech synthesis. "The biggest issue won't be how fast a
computer can go, but how we can use that power to improve
communication with the system," he said.
 
 
Compatibility a Permanent Issue?
As Chips and Technologies president Gordon Campbell sees it,
future compatibility at the CPU level is more important that
faster chips. In the long term, the computer industry will see
a "migration of commonality" among microprocessors and
less dependence on a particular architecture, be it Intel or
Motorola, Campbell said.
 
But not everyone sees CPU compatibility as the hot topic for the
'90s. Self-styled "software wizard" Andrew Hertzfeld, an original
member of the Macintosh engineering team, believes the next
decade will bring the computer industry an opportunity to create
advanced consumer-level products. "With dedicated controllers, I
think it doesn't matter at all if the CPU is Motorola or Intel
compatible, except to the extent that the development tools [for
those processors] are already there," Hertzfeld said. "To me the
most interesting thing will be communicating with the user, the
user interface."
 
Hertzfeld said he also sees a bright future for verbal
communication with computers. Future computers will be able to
watch as well as hear the user, which will help in speech
recognition. Plus, handwriting input will come into play,
especially for portable PCs.
 
"Another interesting way to use all those MIPS is to interpret
what the user is going to do next," Hertzfeld said. "To try to
present the user with solutions instead of running through some
menu hierarchy."
 
                              --- BYTEweek Staff
 
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