By Stephen Olson
I am astounded at the transformation of the user interface in recent history. The latest trends including facial recognition for authentication, gester technology both visually and with accelerometers in the device to describe a symbol to the device for authentication. But each time these innovations come about, we should ask the question: Is it all really necessary?
As we look into the history of user interfaces on embedded devices, there were some clear cause and effect situations. Take for example the IMSAI personal computer that predates the Apple and IBM PC.
While this was the “cool” factor of its day, each switch and LED had dedicated meaning. And the physical switches meant you knew what state the switch was in before one toggled in an instruction. Intuitive, no. Informative, yes, if you know how to use it. And once you knew how to use it, it was a very effective way of programming the computer directly with machine code. But the days of the physical toggle switches and Red LEDs is long since past and user interfaces have evolved.
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