Harmonix, the people who brought you the ever popular game Rock Band, have now created two interesting innovations in technology interface using the Microsoft's Kinect technology which needs no controller to connect to the computer. Put another way, anything, including your body, can become an interface to the machine.
I've written about this reinvention of interface before, and I think it's worth noting that these new games from Harmonix are the beginning of a new relationship of people to their devices and the network.
This type of seamless interface to the machine will change the nature of a number of consumer activities over time. Let's list a few:
Gaming: many more people and many more types of people will be brought into the video game experience because many, like me, don't like game controllers but love gaming;
Shopping: people will be able to easily "try on", or "enter" shopping activities with the Kinect technology along with the right applications;
Teaching: there are many times as a teacher I wished I could have "taken" a student "into" a situation whether it was a balance sheet, or a computer design, so that i could have showed them how something worked physically - not just verbally.
I'm sure there will be many, many more applications, and I do believe that now is a good time for firms to begin to explore how they could use this new device. What do you think are the coolest possible applications?