Natural user interfaces: Towards seamless human-machine communication

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  Quantumrun Foresight
• June 17, 2022

Insight summary

Imagine a future where talking to your gadgets feels as natural as chatting with a friend. Natural User Interfaces (NUI) are making strides in creating seamless interactions between humans and machines, focusing on touch and speech for a more intuitive experience. As these interfaces evolve, they're set to change everything from how we drive to how we communicate, requiring new social norms and potentially leading to advances in various sectors, like healthcare and education.

Natural user interfaces context

User experience (UX) designers are always searching for new ways to make human-to-machine user interfaces as seamless and easy to use as possible. The next level of integration that will change the technology industry is where communication barriers between humans and machines become nearly non-existent.

Natural user interfaces (NUI) are technologies that allow users to interact with gadgets such as smartphones by using different parts of the body. There are two primary characteristics of UX that designers in the field constantly seek to improve: touch and speech. Touch includes using fingers (e.g., to scroll through pages and resize images on screens) and gestures (sensor-enabled devices such as Microsoft’s Kinect game console). Speech uses voice commands to communicate through chatbots and digital assistants that use natural language processing (NLP) to better understand and predict the commands’ intent and context.

According to the book Natural User Interfaces in .NET by Joshua Blake, for a NUI to be successful, it has to be easy to understand (instant expertise) and can be learned progressively (no information overload). In addition, it should facilitate direct interaction (instant response) and has a low cognitive load (does not require too much thinking to master).

Disruptive impact

Big tech companies like Google and Microsoft are pouring resources into NUIs because they understand its potential to shape the future of tech gadgets. This focus on user-friendly interfaces is especially crucial for the success of future technologies like self-driving cars, which are being designed with multi-modal interfaces that include touch, vision, and speech. The goal is to create an intuitive experience that feels as natural as possible, reducing the learning curve for users.

The development of brain-based UI is another fascinating area of research. Companies like EMOTIV are experimenting with electroencephalographic (EEG) headsets that read neural impulses to execute commands. Imagine a world where you could control your smart home or even your car with just your thoughts. This feature could be particularly beneficial for individuals with physical disabilities, offering them a new level of independence and interaction with the world. Governments may need to create new regulations to ensure the ethical use of such technology, especially concerning privacy and data security.

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are also seeing significant investment and development. Technologies like AR glasses could change the way we consume content and interact with our environment. For example, you could be driving and get real-time, AR-based directions displayed right on your glasses, or even receive a call from a foreign business associate and have their speech translated in real-time. Companies could use these technologies for training purposes, and governments could deploy them in various sectors like healthcare for remote surgeries or education for more interactive learning experiences.

Implications of evolving natural user interfaces 

Wider implications of novel and more intuitive natural user interfaces being researched and developed may include:

• New social norms being developed around the use of new NUI in public and the workplace.
• Language and communication norms evolving based on the functionalities of future NUI.
• Increased funding for telecommunications infrastructure projects to fuel development of the high-speed connectivity required for many next-gen NUI systems.
• NUI that can accurately interpret verbal and non-verbal cues to determine user intent, motivation, and sentiment. Such an innovation can help machines to better interact with humans, as well as enable a range of business solutions in the sales and marketing fields.
• Advanced voice assistants with evolved NLP algorithms that can better understand search commands and return more accurate results and perform required tasks.
• Gesture-based interfaces used in some gaming consoles being transferred to everyday computing tasks such as typing, rotating images, and scanning datasheets.

Questions to consider

• What form of NUI do you prefer using the most? And which ones are you interested in learning or trying?
• What novel interface features make it easier for you to complete your daily tasks?