I wrote about BumpTop shortly after Anand Agarawala, its founder, was featured at TED in 2007 and demonstrated the awesomeness of this 3D user interface that enables natural organization and sharing.
I predict BumpTop combined Apple’s eventual slam dunk product, the Tablet, will change the computing experience as we now know it. Can’t wait to watch it happen.
Stumble It!
The Third Place 
I predict that chiropractors will get a boatload of new customers as people crane their necks to look at something 90º from the natural angle of their own necks because in order to use this you need both hands free and the device has to rest on the approx. plane of a keyboard.
Should they combine bumptop with a traditional vertical display, eye doctors will likely do well to as people can no longer memorize the QWERTY keyboard or position of a mouse but instead must constantly look down and then back up again as the device they’re using to control their experience changes with each gesture.
Other than that though, I’m guessing the assimilation will be seamless. 🙂
ooh… I have an idea Brad. Let’s take the concept of a massage table, with the hole for your face, and make room for the arms and create Horizontal Work Stations. Then you can put your bumptop underneath you, the position is natural AND you can be lying down while you work. Plus, imagine the hilarity of video conferencing as we all look at each others faces squished into holes.
I’m calling it the “Workizontal Lifestyle” and I’ve already applied for the patent.
Heated platform and massaging beads will be version 2.0
Whaddya think, should I call up the VCs?
Actually, what I’m wondering is why all these ‘breakthroughs’ are just digital reworkings of real life interfaces.
when will someone create a new paradigm. Wait, I guess the Workizontal Table answered that.
Not sure how to respond to Corey’s rant — except check back here in about 2 years so I can say, “I told you so…” In the meantime, I can’t wait for the ‘workizontal lifestyle’.
Sanjay, sometimes the simple solutions — the ones that mirror our everyday behavior — are the best ones. In these instances, there isn’t a need for a new paradigm.
Brad,
I’ve heard people declare Second Life the future of social media.
I remember VRML being the next big thing.
ATMs were going to replace banks.
eCommerce was going to replace catalogs
yada yada yada
Let’s be honest, there’s a lot of cool shit that gets dreamed up and doesn’t see the light of day outside the lab and a few consumer electronics shows.
Bumptop is very cool. And I’m not saying it’s going fail. But ergonomically it has some significant challenges to address if its going to enjoy broad consumption.
That’s not ranting, its pragmatism, which historically has been what separates the technologies people use with the ones people ooh and aah over shortly before forgetting about entirely.
Corey,
I never got behind Second Life and remain dubious of the latest shiny object but I think tablet computing will take off and shortly thereafter apps like BumpTop will provide a new User Interface that make sitting behind a computer and pecking away at a keyboard a thing of the past.
See the latest from The NYT here:
Technology enthusiasts have never given up on an idea that keeps fizzling: a tablet computer that strikes the public’s fancy.
Brad, first I’m very much enjoying our conversation here, so thanks for playing my friend. If I may now pick up the gauntlet…
Short-burst activities like tapping the social web can be done quite easily from a phone-sized device. Aside from some status angle, I can’t see millions of people tossing out their smart phones to have a larger device that requires a backpack to carry (and dude, if this thing is just a jumbo iPod or iPhone then let’s call it what it is… a big iPhone or iPod).
Meanwhile, long-duration activities like typing a report, doing a design, setting up complex spreadsheets, etc. require something more ergonomically appropriate and probably, for the foreseeable future anyhow, a keyboard (virtual or otherwise) for rapid data entry (no one is entering volumes of data QWERTY-free any time soon).
So then where does this tablet fit in?
Are teenagers carrying it in their backpacks to update their facebook page (see phone reference above and $700 parent pricetag barrier)?
Are salesmen holding it upright in meetings to use as a presentation tool (for an extra $199 you can get the iEasel support!)?
Am I on a plane writing a full report, tray table down, neck craned appropriately? You’d have to be a style-infatuated masochist to set aside the utility of a keyboard and angled display for a tablet when it comes to doing any real substantive computing work
Are we talking about rows of cubicles with tablets on their desks instead of PCs? (I’ve no snarky parenthetical comment here which is bugging me right now.)
People need to know how this will fit in their lives:
I am going to hold you to the claim this will “make sitting behind a computer and pecking away at a keyboard a thing of the past”.
You said two years right? Let’s wager a few beers on it. You can put them on your tab(let) when I win.
I believe Apples success comes from making complex technology simple to the average user. The apple tv is an example of combining current technologies, bundle it under a familiar platform (itunes) and sell it for more than competing technologies.