Bill Buxton, Principal Researcher at Microsoft spoke yesterday at Microsoft World Partner Conference #WPC09. Mr. Buxton primarily presented on multi-touch screen technology and this technology is very cool. He also talked about the future of technology and how technology will work in the future. He spoke of how monitors in general will be everywhere and I think computers in general will be everywhere. You can now purchase a notebook computer at Best Buy on clearance for $350!
Mr. Buxton talked about how 10 years ago he purposed the question “What if broadband internet were essentially free” and today it is essentially free! He then said this is essentially what is happening with monitors and I would argue computers – in the near future they will be essentially free. How will this impact our lives?
Mr. Buxton said that figuring out how technology will impact us in the future is the challenge. He said “nothing we know about technology today, we did not know 10 years ago.” How we use the technology to benefit our lives? It is how we interact with technology with our brain – incidentally our brain is “90% water.”
Mr. Buxton finished with a quote by French Novelist, Marcel Prost:
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”