HOME WORK #4 For home work I had to read Human Computer Interaction in Science Fiction Movies by Michael Schmitz and discuss 5 different "interface metaphors" from the reading. 1)As with all other humans in the envisioned future of that movie a computer controls his consciousness by accessing his brain physically through the backside of his head. I believe this method of controling our minds could some day be realistic. The brain is very complex and will take a very long time to undercover the way it actually works. Controlling our minds will allow us to feed it with knowledge allot quicker, to censor dangerous thoughts, to diagnos medical issues allot more efficiently. 2)Automated palm-print identification systems are already commercially available from several companies, most often used for crime fighting too. This is already used as a security system in many places today (Microsoft even has one that can be used with any desktop pc). I believe it is a very good technic to secure things but in some way can cost a finger or a hand to someone (if the burglar really wants to access the site he might go to the exdent of choping the security person’s hand or finger in order to have access). 3)Another very popular biometric identification technology are the retinal and iris scan. Either the blood vessel patterns of the retina or the pattern of flecks on the iris can be used to uniquely identify individuals. Just like the palm-point indentification it is a very nice way to control access to a restricted site. It can also allow us to identify people in public areas. It might conflict with our privacy but it will allow our society to control its security at higher level. 4)We have seen an approach to display 3 dimensional images physically in Tim Schwartz’s talk on “Table Top Spatially Augmented Reality”, where physical structures are augmented by projections. This is my favorite futuristic approach, tele comunication. I really hope they do come up with something similar (if they haven’t yet). It will revolutionize everything from going to work (you will be able to do so from home), going to school (project yourself to a virtual room while being at home, and many other ways of using it. Maybe even having a projected Movie where the movies will souround you not only with its audio but with its video as well. 5)A typical VR setup with a head-mounted display and data gloves is used in one scene of "Johnny Mnemonic". The agent played by Keanu Reeves is using it to retrieve information from the internet while he browses through an abstract 3D world, manipulating various objects to access sites. This is used already on some gaming consols. This technology will allow people to not only see things but to actually feel them. It will also put us in the souroundings of what we are actually trying to discover rather then just having to look at a 2D image.