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Vintage Mac Living

Beyond the GUI: The Spoken Word User Interface

- 2006.12.20

For the last six years or so, Mac OS X has been the big thing when it comes to Macs. The 3D interface, the iApps, the features, the security, the stability - all of this makes OS X great.

But when I talk about OS X, it occurs to me that Apple isn't naming it's products the way it used to.

Here is a list of every major version of the Mac OS starting with version 1:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7.1, 7.5, 7.6, 8, 8.1, 8.5, 9, 9.1, 9.2, 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5

It seems Apple really want's to use X for as long as possible - but why?

I was thinking about this last night, and it occurred to me that Mac OS X may very well be the last of the conventional GUIs.

After X Comes...

Apple seems to want to use the "X" label until they hit 10.9, but what can we expect after that?

It's been said before: We can't really expect another big revolution in GUI technology. When you look at it, not a whole lot has changed in the way a GUI works in the 23 years since Apple introduced the Lisa.

So what's next? Well, I think it has to be Spoken Word User Interface (SWUI), an operating system that doesn't rely on a keyboard or a mouse, but rather spoken words.

I think Apple may be hard at work designing an operating system that uses a SWUI, and I think they might be trying to make it like the HAL 9000 computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey - but hopefully not as homicidal.

Mac Plus in Star TrekApple has been integrating speech synthesis with the Macintosh ever since it's introduction in 1984, and they've had voice recognition technology available ever since 1993 with the Centris/Quadra 660av and the Quadra 840av.

There are two problems with the voice recognition built into the Mac OS today: The first is that the voice recognition built into the Mac OS doesn't work very well, because it's nothing more than a program painted on top of an operating system that doesn't work well with voice recognition. The second is that Apple hasn't done anything to update voice recognition since 1998 with Mac OS 8.5.

Hello, Computer...

So what will the operating system of the future look like?

I think I have a general idea. First off, menu bars and the mouse will be the first things to go, as there will no longer be a need for them. I Imagine the same will go for file icons, application icons, folder icons, and so on, because they will no longer be needed.

In order to find something, open something, or change settings, all you'll have to do is ask the computer to do it: "Computer, open my Excel workbook from last Monday, reschedule my doctor's appointment for next Thursday at 2:00 p.m., open my MySpace page, Queen to Bishop 6, and call my Mom on iChat."

And what will the new Operating System be called? I think it will be called Mac OS XI - or maybe even Mac OS XV.

I can't confirm any of this. Right now it's only science fiction, but I figure it has to happen at some point in the future.

It may be science fact in 2013, or it might not be science fact until the 23rd century. Only time will tell, so I guess we'll just have to wait. LEM

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