I'd prefer to see improvements to the wheelchair itself. They are ludicrously over-priced for the materials and technologies involved. My sister's wheelchair, while fast, has an awful control system. I'd like to see better control systems (it's all fly-by-wire, so why not a software intermediary that adapts to the user and provides better motor control at slow speeds), charge plates (like those being proposed for electric cars, and currently in use for cell phones and PDA's), and a better range of designs (all-wheel drive, better access to storage, lighter frames, easier to fold/smaller, etc). All of these things exist, but haven't made into wheelchair design generally. There have been some developments - the Segway wheelchair for one - but it'd great to see more, provided the price doesn't go up.
I saw a thing on NGC I think it was, about the US navy shooting a ship with missiles and the interface to the screen was so clumsy and outdated that I was astounded, shows you that seems a common thing, in some areas engineers never think about UI it seems and/or don't look at existing evolution of UI's but go by what they learned on school 35 years ago. Perhaps they should force electrical system engineers to do a course on UI design, and force them to do a refresher every 6 years or so.
The Chromebooks are here, starting with Samsung's Series 5, a cute little number that promises instant-on access, 3G connectivity, and long enough battery life to web surf with the best of 'em.
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I'd prefer to see improvements to the wheelchair itself. They are ludicrously over-priced for the materials and technologies involved. My sister's wheelchair, while fast, has an awful control system. I'd like to see better control systems (it's all fly-by-wire, so why not a software intermediary that adapts to the user and provides better motor control at slow speeds), charge plates (like those being proposed for electric cars, and currently in use for cell phones and PDA's), and a better range of designs (all-wheel drive, better access to storage, lighter frames, easier to fold/smaller, etc). All of these things exist, but haven't made into wheelchair design generally. There have been some developments - the Segway wheelchair for one - but it'd great to see more, provided the price doesn't go up.
I saw a thing on NGC I think it was, about the US navy shooting a ship with missiles and the interface to the screen was so clumsy and outdated that I was astounded, shows you that seems a common thing, in some areas engineers never think about UI it seems and/or don't look at existing evolution of UI's but go by what they learned on school 35 years ago.
Perhaps they should force electrical system engineers to do a course on UI design, and force them to do a refresher every 6 years or so.