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Human-computer interfaces: From the mouse to Siri, Kinect, Project Glass and beyond We’ve come a long way since the era of computer punch cards. Here’s a look at how the way we interact with computers has evolved over the last half-century.
Punch cards
Humans first interacted with digital computers through punch cards. The holes represented 0s and 1s, or binary code, that served as instructions to the computer.
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IBM via AP
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IBM PC
The IBM PC made its debut in 1981. Users entered typed in commands using a keyboard.
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IBM via AP
Computer mice
Guerrino De Luca, then the CEO of Logitech, left, and inventor Douglas Engelbart sit before a table full of computer mice, including, at center foreground, the first one invented by Engelbart in 1963, at the Logitech headquarters in Fremont, Calif. This year, the little computer gizmo that has been hailed as the bridge between our physical world and the virtual life inside our computers turns 49.
Julie Stupsker
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AP
Apple’s mouse
Apple Steve Jobs is credited with making the mouse a mainstream product, despite his reservations about the design. Apple’s mouse, first released in 1983, featured just one button.
Paul Sakuma
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AP
Mighty Mouse
Apple salesman Brian Tong holds up Apple's new Mighty Mouse at an Apple store in Palo Alto, Calif. The Mighty Mouse was the company's first laser mouse.
Paul Sakuma
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AP
iPad
Children play with iPads and the Apptivity app at Westfield London Shopping Centre in London. The introduction of the iPad, with its large touchscreen surface, was a game changer in the personal computer market, making it easier for consumers than ever before the enjoy video and other multimedia services on the go. Its intuitive interface also allowed children as young as a few months to be able to interact with the computing device. About a third of U.S. Internet users now say they own a tablet computer. Apple CEO Tim Cook commented this year that he believes that the iPad has had the fastest adoption rate of any technology in history.
Peter Macdiarmid
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Getty Images
Samsung Galaxy Note
A woman experiments with the Samsung Galaxy Note in New York. In August, Samsung unveiled a new Galaxy Note tablet aiming to knock Apple's iPad off its market throne. A key feature of the Galaxy Note 10.1 is an “S Pen” that can be used as if it were a pen on paper or a computer mouse. Samsung built technology from Japan-based Wacom into the tablet screen to create a layer that can sense S Pens so precisely that it can tell how hard they are being pressed or even if they are hovering, slightly out of touch.
Don Emmert
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AFP/Getty Images
Siri
Siri, the new virtual assistant, is displayed on the new Apple iPhone 4S in San Francisco. Siri's voice recognition system has been called as revolutionary as the Mac.
Eric Risberg
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AP
Gesture control
Sony is one of the first laptop makers to roll out gesture-control features on its laptops. The new E series allows users to do things like start playback of music or control a Powerpoint slide show through hand gestures.
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Sony
Kinect
Children play “Kinect Sesame Street TV” at the Sesame Street Workshop in New York. Kinect is a motion and voice-sensing controller created by Microsoft.
Mark Lennihan
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AP
Kinect
Kinect represents the next step in the evolution of television, adding an interactive element to what's still largely a passive, lean-back experience.
Mark Lennihan
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AP
Kinect
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is shown as a Kinect avatar on a large screen during his keynote address on the eve of the January 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Rick Wilking
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Reuters
Kinect
A model demonstrates a brain-training game, one of Microsoft's new Kinect motion-sensing system-compatible games for the Xbox 360, at a press briefing in Tokyo. The brain-training game requires players to use eye-brain-body coordination to answer various math and game puzzles.
Shizuo Kambayashi
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AP
Toshiba headgear
Toshiba employee Aira Hotta takes off a headgear prototype to show its interior projection of a nighttime Tokyo. The nearly 360-degree image is projected on the 15.8-inch screen inside the 5.95-pound helmet in accordance with the wearer's head position, which is detected by infrared sensors.
Shuji Kajiyama
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AP
Leap Motion
The Leap Motion box picks up users’ hand gestures and translates them into commands for a computer.
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Leap Motion
Leap Motion
Leap Motion's technology can translate pencil strokes in the air into a sketch on your computer.
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Leap Motion
Project Glass
Google founder Sergey Brin adjusts a pair of Project Glass glasses on designer Diane von Furstenberg before the rehearsal for her spring-summer 2013 collection show, which was used as a launching event for Google's Project Glass, which uses augmented reality technology to display charts, maps and more.
Carlo Allegri
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Reuters
Project Glass
Brin, right, congratulates two parachutists during a Project Glass demonstration at the 2012 Google I/O Conference in San Francisco. Google demonstrated the device by having the parachutists jump out of a blimp hovering about 7,000 feet above the city. The audience got live video feeds from their glasses as they descended to land on the roof of the Moscone Center, the location of the conference.
Paul Sakuma
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AP
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