How Natural User Interfaces are changing Human Computer Interaction

We are living a new ‘wave’ of innovation in Human-Computer Interaction, as new devices and technologies are allowing the creation of new forms of interaction. These new technologies are the building blocks for us, software developers, designers, and architects, to create more natural and intuitive interfaces for our applications. These new technologies are, not only multi-touch enabled, but also allow multiple users to interact simultaneously with the application, in a collaborative manner, opening a world of possibilities and potential for next generation software to take advantage of.

New platforms and tools are emerging every day, such as Microsoft Surface, Apple's Iphone, Pranav Mistry's Sixth Sense, and the upcoming Xbox360's Project Natal are great examples of this ‘new wave’ of technology, and the positive feedback these new ideas are receiving prove that users value this change. I think that now it’s important to stop and evaluate the impact we, as IT Professionals, can have on the way users interact with devices, with information and even each other, and how we can take advantage of these new tools and add value to our applications.