Last night I was checking out the new Star Trek movie. Besides being a cool movie I really like the special effects. The control bridge looks great and has some impressive looking touch screen interfaces.

The entire control bridge interface was designed by OOOii. A company in California that specializes in building technology interfaces for movies.

As they state on their website:

“For the past decade when Hollywood directors like STEVEN SPIELBERG, JJ ABRAMS, MICHAEL BAY, and TONY SCOTT have dreamed of the future, they have turned to us to build it.”

They are also the guys behind Minority Report UI’s. Minority Report’s gestural interaction with a computer interface has served as global inspiration to designers, artists and computer engineers as the bar to shoot for.

While I was browsing the OOOii website it occured to me that these guys might actually be designing the real interfaces of tomorrow. And one of the places where we might be seeing those interfaces could be the iPad.

I know some of you might think of the iPad as a glorified iPhone, but it actually brings a world of new opertunities. It is one of the first touch screen products that is actually affordable for the consumer market. People might actually buy it.

Think of the new opportunities. Conventional iPhone design principles will not apply. The less is more principle on a larger screen will allow you to shift around pieces of information and controls.

What the heck, you can already control a flying helicopter using your iPhone. Controls could also extend to other devices such as house hold appliances. Control your room temperature, turn on your coffee machine or check who is standing at the front-door. All using your handy iPad.

We might be entering the next generation of interface design sooner than you think. Lets embrace the iPad and boldly go where no man has gone before ;)

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