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end of hardware book review Mar 03, 2010
This was an eye opening book. Essentially it talks about the not so distant future of human / computer interfaces. If you can imagine a hardware delivery system that doesn't feel like a computer but is so natural to use it is just with you. This book describes the coming time when these kind of displays and technology will make life with machines much more natural. Essentially doing away with the klunky interfaces of today into a much more wearable computer technology that becomes part of who we are.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Highly recommended Jun 04, 2006
Augmented reality could be many things today. This book is based on the original idea - portable, ubiquitous computing with but a single user interface, minimized to the absolutely necessary adaptation to the human senses - and it's probably the most complete book ever written about it.
Does it really make sense that we're filling our rooms with more and more electronic gimmicks and gadgets, including boulders like TVs and PCs, obsolete and junked every 2 years ? - Read this book, and you'll definitely know it doesn't.
The author gives a thrilling survey of new ideas and solutions, all written in a very concrete and readable style, richly illustrated, understandable to almost anyone - which is mandatory, as it really concerns anyone. It's about the future of information technology, from right now on through the next decades at least, about what to expect and for what to prepare.
This doesn't get speculative at all, the author frankly explains and calculates realistic options technology will offer, explains all these new applications that will change our lives.
After an extensive introduction comes a fiction part, illustrating the impact on everyone's everyday life, then a design part handling all aspects of implementation including many new approaches, and finally there's a part about the future of media, especially regarding all the new capabilities calling for three dimensional productions. Some holographic techniques are introduced, for example, that I've never heard about anywhere else.
Don't expect extensive mathematics or even program code however. This is not a textbook (which wouldn't make sense anyway, because it touches so many different disciplines).
There are more issues of course, concerning such a technology that doesn't stop at the user interface at all. Ubiquitous computing raises essential questions. The author shows that computers will more and more become sort of mind extensions, so computer privacy is already getting exceedingly important.
Bottom line: This book is groundbreaking, very relevant, and a must for anyone interested or involved in modern technology.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Simply essential to read! May 09, 2006
This is not one of the usual popular science books - this is the blueprint for an entire technology.
The author manages to address both interested 'laymen' and technology experts. The design part makes up half of the book and may be more demanding to read, but even here he explains everything as simply as possible, with many pictures and without requiring any math.
This book doesn't just bother a lot with the state of the art, it goes straight ahead to new shores and explores the tools to get on. Several ideas are most probably entirely new. So the expert will profit a lot from this lecture as well.
One core thematic are displays, a problem simply taken as incurable by many other publications in this field. Without the clear proof that those ultra light, ultra versatile display glasses are actually feasible, the approach wouldn't work, so here it comes. An entire bunch of other technologies belonging to the complete thematic are discussed as well. Many more aspects of the case are addressed, everyday applications are treated extensively, the impact on media, security aspects, anything.
A complete table of contents and the introduction can be found at the book's site theendofhardware.com.
One may object if everything discussed here will really emerge this way, but as to feasibility and applicability, the author delivers good and comprehensive arguments, emphasizes ergonomical aspects, unaffectedly predicts that certain classical hardware like keyboards will seamlessly coexist with the new technology.
The really exceptional content and the way it is written - plain, straightforward, with lots of illustrations and explanations and quite some humor - are making this book a prime recommendation.
Klaus
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