Publication date 2001 ISBN 0-06-662067-8 Dewey Decimal 004'.01'9 -- dc21 Originally published 2001 Page count 224 Publisher HarperCollins | Pages 224 OCLC 00-059767 LC Class QA76.9.H85 D46 2001 Genre Non-fiction | |
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The Unfinished Revolution is a 2001 book by Michael Dertouzos that proposes why and how technology should be made to work for humans. It goes on to state that until this goal has been met the computer revolution is 'unfinished'.
Contents
The newsmakers tunisia the unfinished revolution
Summary
In the foreword to the paperback edition, written by Tim Berners-Lee shortly after Michael Dertouzos's death, he succinctly summarizes the objectives of the book by stating the three areas he believes computers still need improvement in: "helping us to communicate better with each other, by helping with the actual processing of data, and by being less of a pain in the process." More specifically, the book breaks this down into five buckets that need special attention and improvement:
- Natural Interaction
- Automation
- Individualized Information Access
- Collaboration
- Customization
Natural Interaction
Dertouzos argues that since humans are not born with keyboard and mouse inputs to interact with the world why should we be expected to interact with computers in such a fashion. Instead he states that computers should engage us through our existing five senses and goes on to mostly focus on examples for vision and hearing. His primary focus for providing input to computer systems lies in proposals within the speech recognition area but he also emphasizes the need to simplify software interface systems, while warning against reducing them down to an unreasonably small number of options (such as a car only being able to accelerate or turn right).
In the area of speech recognition, he seems to accurately predict the model for systems that are the more successful and accurate implementations. Guided and limited sub-sets of buckets allow the systems to narrow down the possible responses and significantly reduce errors in interpretation. For example, automated traffic inquiry systems now commonly used first ask where the caller is, then what type of travel or road system they are inquiring about, before giving the option to name the roadway or public transportation system.
While the Natural Interaction discussion does not go specifically into touch, the Apple iPod wheel interface is a prime example of a more human centric input system for a product that previously presented serious user interaction challenges. Prior digital music players generally required the user to hold an up or down button and wait as the screen scrolled through perhaps hundreds of artists or thousands of songs. The iPod wheel scroll system used a capacitive touch and acceleration implementation that was so pleasing some even described it as a somewhat addictive motion for the thumb.