New Interface for Handheld Computers

Kevin Remhof writes "Researchers at SunLabs have come up with a new theoretical interface for handheld computers. As stated in the abstract: "The key idea of the proposed model is that the display can be compressed and expanded by moving objects radially farther away or closer to an event horizon in the middle of the screen." It's tailor-made for small screens. "

Comments

Re:Duh!

[Grand Facade]

http://www.hyperbolictree.com/Inxight/Demos/HT_Liv e_Demos/HT_Live_Demos_Page.html

Duh!

[Enry]

This is one of those "why didn't I think of it?" kinds of ideas.

In short, think of you standing in an open field. There are 5 trees at varying distances from you. As you move back, the trees will disappear into the horizon, and as you get closer, the trees get closer until you pass them, in which case they're behind you and out of view.

Now replace the field with the Palm screen, the trees with file icons, and the horizon with the event horizon.

Anyone find a URL for the software? I'd like to try it out.

Additional UIs that are better (links included)

[c.jaeger]

I scanned the article and it looks like SunLabs limited it's UI to something like a navigator zooming in and out of a static 2D map.

There are more metaphors that take the SunLabs concept further. The neuron/brain model is common to a lot of these UI programs.

• Thought Stream is a Palm program that allows you to store information and organize it by associations or links between ideas.
• Thinkmap has generated a really neat Java applet with www.bacardi.com (must be 21 to enter ;) to create an interactive web site that should leave a lasting impression even on heavy drinkers.
• Natrificial has a software product called "The brain" that was so awesome, it was the first shareware product I ever purchased. The metaphor it uses for finding information is like that of SunLabs except it is better.
  I could create a "brain" whose central point is "college", around that point is college related stuff like: Chicago, beer, frat, and Kim. I tie the thought of Minneapolis to Kim since that's Kims home. Rob is also from Minneapolis but now he's in Chicago. Rob gets generated as having links to the existing Minneapolis and Chicago thoughts.
  Now when I road trip to Chicago next, I can navigate to that thought and see links to Rob (and thoughts tied to Rob in the distance), college (and things associated with college in the distance). Ain't that slick.
  And the beauty of this is that it's a slick UI for Windows (flames ignored) and the files can be imported into Thought Stream.
• MindManager is another Win-doze client with some neat functionality. It uses the powerful concept of Mindmapping techniques to capture ideas and designs plus it has some good web export functionality.
• Visual Mind is like MindManager above, only I think it's not as powerful.

Finally I have to give special recognition to Lifestreams. Take a look at their MacroMedia presentation to see how they use chronology and a streaming metaphor to organize info. It is a simple and insightful solution that reflects the way most people work.

Now if there was a product that merged the Lifestreams metaphor and "the brain" metaphor and included an HTML import/export function; I really doubt Mr. John Doe office worker would ever want to see a hierarchical or static 2D view of his files again.