Brave NUI World

Chapter 1

Introduction

Keywords

Moore’s law, GUI, WIMP, NUI, pitfalls

All things will be produced in superior quantity and quality, and with greater ease, when each man works at a single occupation, in accordance with his natural gifts, and at the right moment, without meddling with anything else.

—Plato

In the decades since the first digital computers were programmed using mechanical switches and plug boards, computing and the ways in which people interface with computers have evolved significantly. Some aspects of this evolution have both been anticipated and withstood the test of time. Moore’s law is an example. The law states that the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit will double approximately ...