Touch, face- and voice-recognition, movement sensors are changing the way we interact with computers.

Bill Buxton first used a computer in 1971. Even four decades ago, Buxton could picture a future enhanced by technology. Eventually he came to dream about humans and computers having close interaction – being able to operate a computer by gesturing at it or by touching it, or having a computer recognize your voice and face.

“I’m excited more now than I have been since I’ve been in the business because I can taste it now,” says Buxton, a principal researcher at Microsoft since 2005. “Stuff I’ve been working towards and thinking about and dreaming about for 20 or 30 years is now at the threshold of general usage.”

Touch, face- and voice-recognition, movement sensors – all are part of an emerging field of computing often called natural user interface, or NUI. Interacting with technology in these...read more