The Intelligent Interface: Sam Whitmore & Jason Yuan of New Computer
Nov 2, 2023 · 18:56
Sam Whitmore and Jason Yuan of New Computer advocate for AI interfaces that adapt to human context by using implicit signals like proximity, gesture, and tone, rather than forcing users to adapt to rigid input modes. They demonstrate a pose-detection system that switches between keyboard and voice input based on user distance from the screen. They explore social gestures for rejecting calls and propose new physics metaphors like blending images by shaking an iPad. They argue that probabilistic materials like generative AI require familiar metaphors from nature and human behavior, and that mixing input and output modalities in real time yields more natural experiences. The demos, all speculative fictions, point toward future hardware where context-aware reasoning becomes the norm.
