Quantum Interface founder and chief technology officer Jonathan Josephson uses an Android tablet to demonstrate how navigating using menus can be sped up using the company’s predictive vector-based interface. Credit: Shelby Tauber / for AMERICAN-STATESMAN
This week's Digital Savant column, which ran in Tuesday's print edition and on MyStatesman.com, is about Quantum Interface, an Austin company with new technology that could change the way we use touch and motion controls in our devices.
It's not easy to get across in photos and text how it works, so you can also find with that story in a video that explains the concepts — which could apply to VR and automobiles as well — a demonstration from the company's founder and chief technical officer Jonathan Josephson.
Here’s an excerpt from the column:
If you've ever tried to find a contact or a buried song on a smartphone or on the tiny screen of a smartwatch, you might be used to lots of tapping and scrolling. Quantum Interface can speed up those searches with predictive menus and more natural ways to navigate.
"It's really about getting through layers and layers of data and information much more quickly and much more naturally," said Kevin Fiur, the company's executive vice president. "It's a necessary transition as we use better technology, which by definition is more difficult to use unless you come up with a better interfaces. That's what we've done."
It's a tough concept to wrap your brain around without seeing it in action. But on a recent afternoon, Josephson was at the ready with an electronic store shelf's worth of devices running software and demos from Quantum, including a Motorola Moto 360 smartwatch and a computer equipped with a Leap Motion sensor, which can detect hand and finger gestures and turn those into movements.
You can read the full column here and see another video below from Quantum itself explaining some of the ways this tech works:
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