The hand gestures in Minority Report look really great, but imagine how tired your arms/hands/fingers would get, even after a short amount of time. The beauty of a conventional mouse is that you can move the cursor across the entire screen with only an inch of movement.
I suppose a therimin-like interface could be made that was intended to be used from a sitting position, with small movements of the hands and fingers. It might take a good while to learn to use though.
A nice elderly woman contacted the call center I supervised to ask us why "we had called 911 on her." After several minutes of back and forth we determined that the police had shown up at her house because her modem had dialed 911. The agent checked her dialer settings and sure enough, her area code had been changed to "911".
Agent: "Ma'am, you computer has been set up to dial 911 as the area code, do you know how that happened?"
Customer: "I don't know"
Agent: "Ma'am, did someone in your household type it in."
Customer: "Well I typed 911 in it."
Agent: "Did you type 911 into your computer, or your telephone?"
Customer: "My computer."
Agent: "So you typed it in?"
Customer: "No."
Agent: "But you typed 911 into your computer settings."
Customer: "Yes."
While it was clear that she was wading in the senile end of the pool, it was obvious from listening to the agent walk her through fixing the area code that she clearly knew how to open the dialer settings. He fixed it and ended the call.
Two hours later she called back and wanted to know "why we were calling 911 on her again." After more conversation we determined that the 911 operator called her and said that she was dialing 911 with her computer again. The agent checked her dialer settings and sure enough, her area code had been changed to "911" again.
Agent: "Ma'am, we fixed this problem a couple of hours ago; do you know how the 911 got placed in your area code?"
Customer: "No."
Agent: "Did you type 911 in your computer?"
Customer: "No."
Agent: "Did you change the area code from 608 to 911?"
Customer: "Yes."
Agent: "Why?"
Customer: "I thought that's where it went."
Agent: "So you typed 911 into the area code field in your computer?"
Customer: "Yes."
By that time the poor lady's son had arrived. The agent fixed it and explained the situation to the son. She didn't call back again...
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The most entertaining call I ever received, though, was the woman, in reply to my normal "Tech Support" greeting, said in a firm and demanding voice "I'D LIKE TO BE SERVICED!"
Another time I enjoyed a call from a genteman who, in the middle of an otherwise unremarkable support call, asked me if I was a Catholic. He wanted to know because I might tell the Pope about his Web Opera and he didn't want Henry Kissenger to find out. I thought he was joking until I looked at the past call log and saw that all of his prior calls had been fraught with generally insane questions about religion and Kissenger...
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The hand gestures in Minority Report look really great, but imagine how tired your arms/hands/fingers would get, even after a short amount of time. The beauty of a conventional mouse is that you can move the cursor across the entire screen with only an inch of movement.
I suppose a therimin-like interface could be made that was intended to be used from a sitting position, with small movements of the hands and fingers. It might take a good while to learn to use though.
A nice elderly woman contacted the call center I supervised to ask us why "we had called 911 on her." After several minutes of back and forth we determined that the police had shown up at her house because her modem had dialed 911. The agent checked her dialer settings and sure enough, her area code had been changed to "911". Agent: "Ma'am, you computer has been set up to dial 911 as the area code, do you know how that happened?" Customer: "I don't know" Agent: "Ma'am, did someone in your household type it in." Customer: "Well I typed 911 in it." Agent: "Did you type 911 into your computer, or your telephone?" Customer: "My computer." Agent: "So you typed it in?" Customer: "No." Agent: "But you typed 911 into your computer settings." Customer: "Yes." While it was clear that she was wading in the senile end of the pool, it was obvious from listening to the agent walk her through fixing the area code that she clearly knew how to open the dialer settings. He fixed it and ended the call. Two hours later she called back and wanted to know "why we were calling 911 on her again." After more conversation we determined that the 911 operator called her and said that she was dialing 911 with her computer again. The agent checked her dialer settings and sure enough, her area code had been changed to "911" again. Agent: "Ma'am, we fixed this problem a couple of hours ago; do you know how the 911 got placed in your area code?" Customer: "No." Agent: "Did you type 911 in your computer?" Customer: "No." Agent: "Did you change the area code from 608 to 911?" Customer: "Yes." Agent: "Why?" Customer: "I thought that's where it went." Agent: "So you typed 911 into the area code field in your computer?" Customer: "Yes." By that time the poor lady's son had arrived. The agent fixed it and explained the situation to the son. She didn't call back again... ---------- The most entertaining call I ever received, though, was the woman, in reply to my normal "Tech Support" greeting, said in a firm and demanding voice "I'D LIKE TO BE SERVICED!" Another time I enjoyed a call from a genteman who, in the middle of an otherwise unremarkable support call, asked me if I was a Catholic. He wanted to know because I might tell the Pope about his Web Opera and he didn't want Henry Kissenger to find out. I thought he was joking until I looked at the past call log and saw that all of his prior calls had been fraught with generally insane questions about religion and Kissenger...
Here's a summary of what your average American knows about India and Pakistan:
-- Apu from the Simpsons is funny.
-- Curry smells funny.