Embedded Files
Over my 30 year career, I have had the privilege or working on foundational research in 3D interactive computer graphics, human-computer-interaction, search, mobile UI, and now, generative AI. Every project is a group effort that rests on the shoulders of those who have come before us.
Microsoft Envisioning Center
Microsoft Envisioning Center
The Microsoft Envisioning Center is a joint undertaking of two groups at Microsoft: the Strategic Prototyping Group and the Office Envisioning Group.
My contributions (2013 - 2015):
Led Ideation & scenario development for Future of Education and Ambient Intelligence projects
Wrote several candidate stories for new scenarios
Scouted advanced technology from Microsoft Research
Designed "Advertisements from the Future"
Microsoft Research
Microsoft Research
With Andy Wilson I helped implement a novel system for real-time remote collaboration that used registered projections where were correctly aligned with participant eye location. Sample applications included drawing, game-play, and remote collaboration.
Surface Table
Surface Table
I helped create the first apps for the prototype that would later become the Microsoft Surface (Pixelsense). This included a fun exploration with the Lego Corporation and close interactions with Andy Wilson.
Additional Research & Concepts
Additional Research & Concepts
Minority Report
Minority Report
When Steven Spielberg initially spun up the Minority Report film project, his production crew reached out to Microsoft Research for input on future technologies and societal trends. With another researcher, Michael Cohen, I met several times with the Production Designer, Alex McDowell. I, in turn produced several speculative renderings of future technologies and visual metaphors. Unfortunately, the production was put on hold for the director to pursue other projects. When Minority Report restarted, they turned instead to MIT for future prognostication.
The Task Gallery was an experimental 3D window manager that uses interactive 3D graphics to provide direct support for task management and document comparison. User tasks appeared as artwork hung on the walls of a virtual art gallery, with the selected task on a stage. Multiple documents could be selected and displayed side-by-side using 3D space to provide uniform and intuitive scaling. This one of the first fully implemented 3D task managers and supported real Windows applications.
We created a new technique for document management called the Data Mountain, which allows users to place documents at arbitrary positions on an inclined plane in a 3D desktop virtual environment using a simple 2D interaction technique.
The Orb
The Orb
Canonical facets such as time, item type, ownership, and status were shown on bands that circled a transparent sphere. Within the sphere, layered plans contained geographic information or other sources that had intrinsic spatial relationships. Browsing and selecting were affected by sliding the bands and arriving and intersections between the different bands.
3D Information Hierarchies
3D Information Hierarchies
Conceptual arrangements of productivity oriented views, focused on files and dense data hierarchies. Various arrangements of hyperbolic trees, one-dimensional bands, and perspective walls were used to explore how users could draw correspondences between different data types.
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