The brand new Windows 8 metro interface

Here comes a good walkthrough of the pre-release version of Windows 8, if you have missed it. It’s an interesting example of how difficult it is to support both Touch and Pointer interaction mode on the same UI platform.

The room interface of the future

The artefacts in our rooms are increasingly digital and networked. Here is good concept for how a flexible and natural interface could be designed for interacting with all your hardware, software and services.

The room is first scanned by a pattern-recognition camera (similar to Microsoft Kinect) and the image is projected on a coffee table. Since the camera can both track your fingers, their movement and their target, you become able to interact with your networked hardware directly from the table. Smart and much cheaper than the original Microsoft Surface approach below.

Turn your world into a touch screen

Microsoft Labs continue to explore Touch surfaces. This time they are using their Kinnect technology and a Pico projector mounted on your shoulder. The interface is projected in front of you, and the Kinnect device track where and what you touch. Clever.

It still looks a bit bunky but in some years from now, we may see this outside the labs.

Microsoft Lab Omnitouch

Microsoft Lab Omnitouch

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All the user interface guidelines you need

Usability Geek

Thanks to the usability geek, all the official usability, interaction design and interface guidelines from AppleSamsungMicrosoftRIM, etc.. are now available in one place.