Information at Your Fingertips 3.0
The meaning of information at your fingertips has radically changed with the advent of spatial computing and Mixed Reality so and let’s take a look at the milestones that built that path as we are witnessing a new way of interacting with your digital life.
1.0 – Keyboard & Mouse
The motto of the Information Industry Association was “Putting Information at Your Fingertips” and has been around since the 1970s but Bill Gates made the phase “Information at Your Fingertips” popular starting in the late 80’s especially with his Comdex 1990 Keynote where he laid out this vision. You can view this classic keynote on YouTube. ((20) Bill Gates 1990 Comdex Keynote "Information At Your Fingertips" - YouTube)
Information way back then then was mainly stored on the local PCs or in advanced cases on your Local Area Network (LAN). When Mr. Gates spun that phrase the Internet was not common and there was only 1151 .com addresses even registered. I remember using the information superhighway with text-based connectivity tools like Archie, Gopher, Veronica and Jughead is what I used to find information on the Information Super Highway.
Quickly the graphical tools emerged thanks to Mosaic and I remember working at the School Board as a computer tech trying to get 8 MB of RAM into a PC so they could run Windows 3.11 with a TCP/IP stack so I could connect our computers to this new “network of knowledge”. My supervisors at the school board encouraged this work so we could bring remote resources to teachers and students. Those were fun and rewarding days.
2.0 – Mobile Touch Screen
The Internet exploded and soon after the power in the palm of your hand grew exponentially. The mobile devices that only made calls and email/text messages were made dinosaurs with the launch of the iPhone which forever changed “information at your fingertips”. Now if you need to know anything its is literally at your fingertips touching a screen and presto you have the answer.
3.0 – Air Gestures
With “1.0” you used a screen, keyboard, and mouse to get data. “2.0” the user input was reduced to simply a touch screen. With “3.0” you literally tap into the air to interact with your digital data as it floats in front of you holographically. Instead of your data being bound to a screen, your data can be placed, consumed, and interacted with anywhere in your physical space. As Mixed Reality headsets get smaller this will become more natural.
If you are in challenging physical conditions, require protective gear, or need tools in your hands does a computer on the shop floor, a massive tablet, or a phone in your pocket give you the help you need? I would say they are more of a hindrance than help. What if that data could just float in the location which is the most convenient and interact with it with a wave of your hand or a voice command?
This is where Information at Your Fingertips 3.0 shines, the ultimate merging of your digital content placed in your physical space where you do your work! I mean as much as we are addicted to phones with the consistent stream of information we still live in the physical world. The real world becomes your digital canvas. You can have infinite screens placed so you can quickly access what you need as you work.
It has been a journey for me starting with connecting teachers and students using an IBM Model 25 hooked to a Baseband network all sharing a single modem to connect to “remote information”. Things have come full circle, but the theme is still connecting people to resources to help them get their job done.
