iPad-ized

Interaction with the content using any keyboard/mouse interface involves a series of motor actions that have to be learned in order to effectively use such interface. Mouse and keyboard are not organs in our bodies, but they certainly are extensions of those organs in the same sense as clothing is extension of our skin (McLuhan, 1964). McLuhan claimed that: "clothing, as an extension of skin, can be both as a heat-control mechanism and as a mean of defining the self socially" (McLuhan, 1964; pp. 119). McLuhan believed that almost every technology, from weapons and money to television and cars, are such functional extensions of ourselves.

Computers are extension of our communication system, while mouse and keyboard are extension of our motor system used to connect with computers. Because we communicate with one extension using the other extension, the content is not directly accessed. However, this context changes when you interact with a touch screen based device.

Touch-screens have been quickly adapted to mobile devices over the past 2-3 years, with the current models like HTC Legend, iPhone 3GS or Sony Ericsson X10 achieving high-level of direct-touch interaction for the user. The biggest advantage of touch interface is that the extension is practically layered on the content, so the cognitive distance between the user and content is reduced only to the glass/plastic surface of touchscreen. You basically touch the content, the only thing that would be closer, is probably hologram or full-immersion virtual reality.

Now, our visual processing is tuned to perceive objects of particular sizes from particular distance, which is related with our images and depth processing system in visual cortex and low-level eye accommodation constrains. That's the reason why we use A4 or A5 format as a text medium and screens between 10 - 24" for the close distance stationary display and 3 - 6" for the mobiles display. 

At the same time, the potential of mobiles touchscreens is limited by the small size of the screen. Small size of the screen quite strikingly limits your possibility to interact with content, simply defined by size of your fingers divided by the size of the displayed content itself. The higher the result, the smaller the number of options is. 

With the iPad, this problem is solved by significantly increasing the screen size. This combined with multitouch screen makes possible to use almost all fingers to interact with different components displayed on the screen. 

iPad doesn't really introduce any new utilitarian quality to your life, but it definitely introduces a new way of interacting with the content. It's a science-fiction dream that came true, the smoothness, easiness and simplicity of touch-interface makes massive difference. And you don't need to work hard on integrating iPad with your daily life routine - it slowly does it itself, re-plugging such functions as internet browsing, e-mail, news, radio, movies, daily organizer, note-taker, e-book/articles reader or sketchbook away from laptop and mobile phone. And counting. 

As an extension of our communication system via large touchscreen, iPad brings new level of immersion with the content by making it more cognitively accessible. And it all feels really natural, biological, almost like it's always been this way. And typing this last sentences on the laptop keyboard in coffee shop at Warsaw Central Train station suddenly feels so... old school ;-)

[photo: Geek On Acid]

1. McLuhan, M. (1964) Understanding Media: The Extension of Man. London: McGraw-Hill. 

Brain, brain, brain.

I am back after long break being busy with Florida conference, smuggling iPad from US (I love it!) and gaining some skin burns.

Three brain studies caught my attention recently.

First - guys from University of Pennsylvania managed to create a first silk-based, ultra-thin brain implants. The electrodes are printed onto silk films, just 2.5 microns thick (which is about 1/40 thickness of paper sheet). When placed on the brain surface and washed with saline the silk dissolves. As a result the electrodes neatly wraps around the brain curves. Pennsylvania team tested those implants on visual cortex of a cats, showing that they were able to record very good signal from electrical brain activity for over a month without causing inflammation. So far BCI's (brain-computer interfaces) based on dissolvable silk are a very promising technology in contrast with currently used BCI's made of silicon, which not only damage the brain tissue but also make it impossible to record larger areas of the brain. 

Second, the MindWalker system. It's a 3 year, EU-funded, 2,5 million euro project aimed at developing exoskeleton that would enable paralysed people to walk again. The MindWalker consist of three elements - BCI, a virtual reality training environment and a robotic exoskeleton attached to the legs. The technology is already out there, but need to be properly integrated. The coolest feature will be a design of BCI. Instead of concentrating on specific commands like 'stand' or 'walk forward', the user of MindWalk will be simply performing the act of walking as they would do it normally. To achieve this, the Belgian robotics team use a dynamic neural networks with learning capabilities, that learn user brain activity and makes feedback possible on the basis of overall brain signal instead of a specific one.

Finally, Nintendo DS Brain Training DOESN'T make you smarter, and doesn't improve overall brain power, the study shows. Published in the most recent Nature, Owen et al. randomly assigned participants to three brain training groups (reasoning training group, short-term skills training group and web-browsing group) with brain training "workouts" for at least 10 minutes a day, three times a week, for a minimum of six weeks. Trainings were designed by folks from Medical Research Council, based on famous Nintendo DS game. They tested over 11,000 volunteers, so the sample was quite hight. Results showed that there was no significant difference for all three groups in tests performed before and after brain training. So really it didn't matter if you were playing brain training or browsing the web in terms of cognitive improvements. It's important to point out tho, that Nintendo never claimed there was any evidenced for Dr Kawashima's Brain Training effects. Still, it would be nice to look at the older population, and more long-term effects (which authors are planning to do).

[photo credit: John Rogers/Nature Materials, Mindwalker, Nintendo]