Faculty & Leadership Blog/Research and Practice

From Buttons to Brains: Our Evolving Interactions with Technology

beplay官网体育Post by Bincy Paul,MBA candidate,with Prof.Ruben Mancha

技术在进步towards us.Our devices,which used to operate with simple on/off switches,现在能感受到我们的触摸,listen to us,与我们交谈,and even recognize us.作为管理者或企业家,you should acknowledge this evolution and design your products to meet the expectations of the user.我们为您提供五项建议,以引导您设计数字体验。

Let's consider the electric arc lamp,英国化学家汉弗莱·戴维爵士于1807年发明。我们能与这个设备交互的唯一方法是通过一个按钮。前进200年,2017,we can use facial recognition to unlock our phones.As a result of the convergence of different fields such as engineering,认知科学,生理学,神经病学,公司正在创新他们设计人机交互的方式。

在人类历史的大部分时间里,我们依靠三种感官与技术互动:视觉,听证(海选)触摸(躯体感觉)。人类的感觉和运动系统是交流信息的自然手段,我们已经使用它们为计算机提供输入。然而,随着技术的发展,we will not be bound by this limitation for long.未来,we will have unmediated ways of interaction with technology—a direct link between brain and computer.In an attempt to study the evolution of our interaction with technology—the new ways in which people provide instructions to machines and receive responses from them—we have mapped some common technologies and different stages of this exchange.

Figure 1.人机交互的发展。

Our ways of interacting with technology have evolved from buttons to touchscreens,gestures,biometric,和语音识别。早期的技术使用机械按钮接受输入和产生的机械或电气输出(例如,转子的位置,灯)而创新如情感(https://www.emotiv.com/)承诺用大脑活动来控制电脑。远离线性进展,图1应该被解释为显示了人机交互的发展趋势。

The way we make a phone call is an excellent example of this progression.进化始于有线电话。第一,we used buttons to enter a telephone number.然后,随着智能手机的推出,we began to use touch screens.后来,我们的互动发展到使用语音命令。Similarly,接到电话,电话首先用声光通知我们。新技术,随着苹果手表和最新Fitbit设备的推出,依靠我们皮肤上的触觉(称为触觉技术)来通知我们。

Advanced Human-Technology Interactions

Companies are relying on these advances to bring new forms of interaction to the mainstream market.Two companies have demonstrated a practical application of the advanced methods of interaction with technology and are worth mentioning: Fitbit and Amazon.

Fitbit跟踪人类活动,比如锻炼,饮食的,以及睡眠习惯。他们最新的可穿戴设备,这个标志性的TMwatch,结合了一个大触摸屏,improved heart rate monitor,and add-ons,such as streaming and storing music and connecting to a credit card.该设备是一个结合了触摸屏和生物识别交互的极好例子。It is an intelligent device that automatically records human physiological changes (heart rate,睡眠活动,以及体温),然后进行处理以在屏幕上提供输出。

另一个使用高级交互的设备是AmazonEcho。Echo使用Alexa,这是基于云的语音控制。这个设备演示了语音交互的出现。With Alexa,you can ask a question or give a command.而不是你拨电话号码,you can ask Alexa to make a call.

最新的趋势是使用人脑信号与设备进行交互。在脑与计算机接口领域已经取得了相当大的进展。The focus is on the use of brain signals as the input to a technology device.For example,an organization named BrainGate uses this technology to enable paralyzed patients to control a wheelchair or a computer cursor just by thinking.The technology allowing this interaction relies on electroencephalography (EEG) signals,从1950年起医生就开始使用。

最终的目标是发展大脑到大脑的通信技术:人脑之间的直接联系。Researchers at the University of Washington and a group of European researchers associated with Starlab Neuroscience have achieved initial success in establishing brain-to-brain communications among subjects located on different continents.也,entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk in his company Neuralink and Mark Zuckerberg in Facebook are experimenting with Brain to Computer and Computer to Brain interface,大脑的两个部分与大脑相连。With the advanced research and availability of suitable hardware,脑与脑的相互作用,曾经被认为是科幻小说,似乎可行。

我们的建议

如果你是一个企业家或者你的公司有一个数字产品,你必须注意人机交互的进化本质。考虑以下建议以开发差异化的数字产品:

  1. Seek to improve your customers' experiences – By designing advanced ways of interaction,您的产品和服务可以变得更加用户友好,并提供增强的客户体验。它还将帮助您开发独特的客户价值主张。
  2. 加强输入和输出互动——真正有区别的产品应该同时依赖先进的输入和输出机制。
  3. 开发面向未来的产品——如果您的产品设计为包含新的交互形式,您将降低IT在快速变化的技术环境中过时的风险。
  4. 关注技术生态系统——记住技术生态系统中人-机交流不断发展的本质的管理者和企业家可以更快地创新,并有极好的机会开发互补的产品和服务。
  5. 使用增强的交互来提高生产力——管理者可以依靠新型的人机交互来提高生产力。它们可以改进传统业务流程的处理方式,such as data entry,数据操作,以及沟通。

Evolving interactions with technology have a myriad of applications in many industries,such as healthcare,telecommunications,entertainment,and education.未来的数字领导者必须认识到人机交互的演变,并为大脑与计算机通信的出现做好准备。

About the author:

宾西·保罗是巴布森学院的工商管理硕士。beplay官网体育她对脑机接口和脑-脑通信领域感兴趣,目前正在进行一项独立的研究,以确定这些技术的创新和可行的商业应用。