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Here’s a screenshot of the Kanzi UI Editor in action

It is fair to say that car Dashboard Instruments have not evolved remarkably over the past couple of decades. Somehow, we felt like something was going to change, but nothing did, at least in a big way. When the Nissan GTR Skyline came out, it did create a lot of buzz because it had an all LCD-display Dashboard with a user interface (UI) made by the Gran Turismo team at Polyphony (a Sony game studio). That’s awesome, but this was a one-time thing, and this is not going to scale beyond the GTR.

That’s where Rightware’s Kanzi user interface come into play. Kanzi is not just a user interface, it’s a user interface Creative Suite and multi-platform Runtime (a “player” in layman terms). Ask around, and you may find that most developers like to write code that perform some kick-butt computing tasks, but I’ve known only a few who actually *love* coding user interfaces. It’s hard, it’s not your run-the-mill computing and it’s really hard to debug. But somehow, Rightware has managed to hire a group of ex-videogame folks who live and breathe for fast user interfaces, and their mission is to help the rest of the community getting on a fast, beautiful, hardware-accelerated user interface. Easier said than done. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Dell Latitude 10 Offers Sub-$600 Windows 8 Tablet Experience, Microsoft Integrating Skype Into Voice, Video Communications Across All Products,

By combining a camera that detects surfaces with one that perceives motion, Canadian university researchers and Autodesk have made a sensor that reads finger gestures based on which part of your body you swipe. The first camera can detect pre-programmed materials like clothing, which would allow finger movements made across your pants or or shirt to activate commands that call specific people or compose an email, for instance. Autodesk sees this type of input as a possible compliment to smartphones or Google Glasses (which lack a useful input device), though it says the motion detection camera isn’t accurate enough yet to replace a mouse. Anyway, if you wanted that kind of device for your digits, it already exists — in spades.

Continue reading Autodesk researchers develop ‘magic finger’ that reads gestures from any surface (video)

Filed under: Displays, Wearables

Autodesk researchers develop ‘magic finger’ that reads gestures from any surface (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Oct 2012 08:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you feel the current design of the PlayStation Store leaves a lot to be desired, then you’ll probably be glad to hear it’s being totally revamped. A new UI should do a better job of pushing fresh content at you, and its appearance will be consistent regardless of whether you’re outputting in standard or high def. Searching has been improved to handle abbreviations and misspellings, and a dynamic list of suggestions will try to work out what you’re looking for as you type. Also, Vita and PSP content will be separated, new filters will be available and content hubs will offer everything linked to a certain title, à la the Xbox 360 Marketplace. Sound good? Well, there’s not long to wait – it’ll be launching in PAL regions (Europe, Asia, Australia and others) on October 17th, while North Americans will receive it almost a week later, on October 23rd.

Filed under: Gaming, Software, Sony

PlayStation Store update hitting PAL regions on October 17th, North America on October 23rd originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Oct 2012 11:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Joystiq  |  VG247, Sony PlayStation Blog  | Email this | Comments

As often as companies love to toy with flexible displays, we’re seldom told how we’d control that newfound freedom. Are we supposed to make e-paper cranes? Credit LG for some forward thinking — it’s just receiving a US patent for a 2008-era user interface invention that would use a bending screen to its advantage. The implementation includes two displays, one of which flexes while the other accepts touch; bend or fold the first display, and the touchscreen changes to suit the context. Having two closely linked displays would also let the panels run either in unity or independently. Suffice it to say that the technology is unlikely to roll out as-is on a smartphone, if ever: LG’s attention has swung towards having one big touchscreen as of late. However, the interface does give the Korean firm a place to start if it develops devices to match its new flexible batteries.

Filed under: Cellphones, Displays, Mobile

LG gets patent for mobile UI that reacts to flexible displays, encourages origami originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Sep 2012 13:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s hard to blame Microsoft for making bold decisions with its upcoming desktop operating system. But the renamed Windows 8-style UI (or Modern UI) instead of Metro might be too great a departure from known and trusted interactions found in the previous versions of Windows.

According to Raluca Budiu, User Experience Specialist with Nielsen Norman Group, who gave an interview to Laptop Magazine, some design decisions are confusing at best and, at worst, a cognitive burden that slows down the user.

Budiu used to do research in human-computer interaction at Xerox PARC, the very same company that invented the Graphical User Interface and gives therefore a valuable opinion on user interfaces and user experience.

Budiu states that the main problem with Windows 8 will be that users will have to deal with two completely different interfaces, that is to say the traditional Windows desktop interface and the tile-based Modern UI. Not only will some interactions be drastically different in Windows 8, but users will have to keep track of which action to use in which environment.

In addition to piling up two different user interfaces, Budiu believes that the app switcher is problematic. It shows each Modern style app in its own tile but all the desktop apps are regrouped in one tile. Users will have to remember the apps that are currently running on the desktop in order to avoid going back and forth between the desktop and the Start screen.

When it comes to finding a common point between these changes, the Start screen seems to incur Budiu’s wrath. It is both a waste of screen space and unintuitive. The Start menu button is gone and switching between the desktop and the Start screen is not evident at first — the button is hidden in a corner and you must hover to make it appear.

Many of the Modern interface paradigms are taken directly from Windows Phone 7. Buttons are not in plain view and most of the screen real estate is dedicated to content. It should have been adapted more thoroughly to the desktop environment.

The risks for Microsoft are clear. Windows users might react badly to UI changes by using the desktop interface as much as they can. Some will put off upgrading their operating systems. By stating that they won’t offer to boot straight to desktop, Microsoft is courageous. The question now is whether they will be able to stay the course and whether the Start menu is effectively gone forever.