Victor ‘ranted’ in his post to remind us how our current definition of interactivity is limited to glassy touch screens that do not utilize our touch senses to their full potential. He argues that texture, the ‘feel’ of things is not accompanied within these slidy screens.
Although he does not include solutions and was writing the article purely to raise awareness, I believe he asked important questions. One idea that I am fond of is to think of these designs as tools that react to our hands.
Tony Stark in his lab. Disney Marvel.
Hiro presenting nanobots. Disney.
Imagine this: a breed between nanobots from Disney’s Big Hero 6 and holograms used by Tony Stark in his research lab. The hologram can sketch schematics in thin air, and then magically materialize from the nanobots. It would become an interactive object, that can be touched, felt, scrubbed, and molded only limited by the user’s imagination.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. – Arthur c. clarke
Although it may still take centuries away with dozens of research, prototypes, and testing before we can commercially mass produce this kind of technology, perhaps we can pick a point or two from Victor’s argument to take the current developments into an alternative shape and features.