Ubiquity is a new project currently in Mozilla Labs. The goal is to enable the user to control their browser through natural language instructions. Here is a succinct video about the project from Aza Raskin:

Apple users may find the keystrokes used to invoke Ubiquity familiar. After all, we have been able to invoke Spotlight with command-spacebar since the introduction of OS X Tiger in 2005.

Users of BlackTree’s QuickSilver will also be familiar with the technology:

The name “Ubiquity”, however, hints at Ubiquitous Computing, defined by Wikipedia as:

Ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) is a post-desktop model of human-computer interaction in which information processing has been thoroughly integrated into everyday objects and activities. As opposed to the desktop paradigm, in which a single user consciously engages a single device for a specialized purpose, someone “using” ubiquitous computing engages many computational devices and systems simultaneously, in the course of ordinary activities, and may not necessarily even be aware that they are doing so.

Ostensibly, none of these technologies is fully qualified as Ubiquitous computing, but they do give us a hint of what’s to come.

Enjoy.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 27th, 2008 at 11:04 am and is filed under Ubiquitous Computing, Usability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.