The computer mouse and keyboard may eventually become just two choices among many ways of controlling technology. Future input devices are likely to rely increasingly on natural movements of the body, including the eyes, head, hands, voice, and even the tongue.
The above example is a custom-fitted device worn inside the mouth like a thin dental retainer. It contains a pressure-sensitive touchpad that allows a user to control a computer, smartphone, or tablet using tongue, head, and sip gestures. It communicates wirelessly through Bluetooth and can perform familiar mouse functions such as moving a cursor, clicking, dragging, scrolling, and triggering shortcuts. Originally developed with accessibility as a major goal, technology like this can give people with limited use of their hands greater independence when using computers.
In the future, input could become much more personal and almost invisible. Eye tracking might let you select an object simply by looking at it, cameras could recognize hand and body gestures, voice and AI could turn ordinary conversation into computer commands, and wearable sensors could detect subtle muscle movements.
Brain-computer interfaces may eventually provide another option for some applications, although today’s most capable implanted systems require medical procedures. Eventually, non-invasive input methods could work together, allowing someone to look at an object, make a small gesture while an AI system determines what they want the computer to do. This could make computing not only faster and more natural, but also more accessible to people with a much wider range of physical abilities.
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