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VisionOS and the Future of Input
Ever since the computer first arrived, keyboard and mouse has been the standard. You have a flat surface with raised little squares that you smack with your fingers. You have another little rounded shape with a flat bottom you move around, and click with.
This awkward, clunky interface has significant culture war elements, in that an entire class of powerful people arose - specifically people who didn't have traditional status markers like height, strength, or indomitable physical presence. Instead these 'nerds' or 'geeks' or whatever you want to call them specialized themselves in the digital realm. Now, the Zuckerburgs and Musks of the prior generation rule the world. Or if they don't, they soon will.
These outdated interfaces seem perfectly normal to everyone who has only used them. Sure many people have used a controller for video games, and may think that controllers are superior for some cases, but not others. Keyboard and mouse is the only way to operate when it comes to a computer, most people surely imagine.
That being said, it's actually quite easy to dip your toes into alternate input methods. Talon is a system that utilizes voice to let you do practically anything on a computer. You can move the mouse, click on any object on your screen, dictate, edit text, and you can even code quite well. Talon's system even supports mapping operations, sometimes very complex ones, to custom noises you record on your own.
On top of that you can integrate eye tracking, using a relatively inexpensive device. If you've ever used voice control combined with eye tracking, you can operate around as fast as someone who is decent at using a keyboard and mouse.
If you have ever used these systems, you probably know that because most digital setups are built for keyboard and mouse, it's not necessarily perfect. Keyboard and mouse still hold the crown.
But. There is a certain magic to controlling a computer through your voice, or your eyes. It begins to open your mind to new possibilities, the idea that there are better, faster, easier, more natural ways of interfacing with a computer than the defaults we have been stuck with.
Enter Apple's VisionOS.
If you haven't seen the recent demo of Apple's new VisionOS they're breaking brand new ground. The entire OS is built around looking at things, and making minute hand motions to control the icons you're looking at. There are no controllers, no physical interfaces whatsoever besides your eyes and your hands. It's breathtaking to watch.
In a review from John Gruber, a well respected old head in the VR space and a creator of markdown, the possibilities behind this new technology are apparent. Gruber describes how
Now Apple does tend to get a ton of hype, but this reaction of being amazed by the experience is surprisingly common among earlier reviewers:
The implications of this 'spatial operating system' are varied and multitudinous, of course. There will be all sorts of productivity gains, and new ways of interacting with the digital world, and fun new apps. However I'm most interested in how this innovation could shift the balance of power back to the strong and physically capable, away from the nerds.
No longer will clunky interfaces make sense - instead computers will be optimized around healthy, fully functional humans. Ideally the most intuitive and common control schemes will reward physical fitness and coordination. Traits which nerds lack in droves.
Will we see a reversal of the popularity that being a nerd or geek has gained in the past few decades? Only time will tell.
Outside of competitive e-sports, I struggle to see how physical fitness would come to play a significant role in outcomes.
Even in VR/AR, the best way to input text is either speech or typing on a virtual keyboard, or even a real one if the system supports it.
Add in eventual brain-machine interfaces and you won't even need to do anything at all beyond think.
If the latter sounds speculative, the Vision Pro is already a crude BCI, its developers have boasted about being able to track dozens of metrics through cameras and other sensors, especially the anticipatory dilation of the pupil, to predict user input before it's made. It literally reads your mind, albeit imperfectly.
And then there's more explicit stuff that Valve is cooking in the oven, I suspect the successor to the Index will display some.
At any rate, Apple is one of the few companies capable of dragging the future into existence, kicking and screaming in the process, and with a massive price tag attached. Nobody else had the chutzpah to offer a mass market product at 3.5k, even if mainly for businesses and developers, and know the latter are immediately preparing for the consumer version that's going to come out in a year or two. The Hololens never stood a chance, it was born too early with too little to show for it.
Now, I've gone from being a massive VR enthusiast, from the old Oculus prototype days, to being mildly jaded about VR as it currently stands.
I bought a Quest 2, and use it primarily tethered, and have found it's a fun toy worth using for maybe an hour at a stretch before it becomes uncomfortable. In fact, I mainly play a single video game, H3VR, and leave a dozen titles I picked up on sale languishing there because I simply can't be arsed.
I have discovered I am simply too lazy to enjoy most VR, and I prefer playing seated when possible.
In order for me to invest further into the tech, the optics need to get a lot better and the headsets a lot lighter. Perhaps some advancement in peripherals, in addition to hand tracking.
I am aware that most of those things exist, but not all once in a convenient form factor.
In this sense, Apple's product is heartening for the slumbering evangelist in me, as it shows that we'll get there sooner or later. Of course, I'm still terminally lazy, so I'm hoping for BCIs to just let me play by thinking instead of something so quaint as physical motion. Still 5 or 6 years away from that at a minimum.
Yep I strongly agree with this, I see the VisionOS as the first step in the move towards BCI. I just think we already have the technology to at least augment KB+M input in specific areas, so I'm excited to see it happening.
Keep that sleeping evangelist alive! If anyone can do it, it's Apple.
Apple only does (good) things years after they've been done by others. They still don't have a foldable, for example. They will not be the ones to first do BCI, if they ever do it.
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