GITS: SAC - "Chat!" - On Virtual Interfaces

The ninth episode of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex continues the Laughing Man investigation. Major Kusanagi enters a live chat which discusses the Laughing Man case. This chat takes place in a digital realm where a handful of commentators debates the circumstances behind the case. A virtual audience sits in the background, and interacts with the commentators individually through holographic text feeds each commentator has access to.

Virtual interfaces such as these are becoming increasingly popular with the Y generation. In November 2009, Microsoft released "1 vs 100" on the Xbox 360. One hundred and one players were connected simultaneously to compete in a trivia game show, which hundreds of others could spectate and participate in as members of "the crowd." The game lasted for several months and at its peak involved more than one hundred thousand people.

One of the facets which allowed the game to succeed so well was the brilliance and flexibility provided by the game's interface. The thematic elements mirrored that of the show it was based on; giant virtual auditoriums with hundreds of avatars representing the players themselves. Gameplay relied solely on three buttons coded to be used to answer the trivia questions of the game quickly and easily. This fast-paced gameplay combined with the proximity of other contestants allowed for deep immersion and fueled popularity.


Another good example of strong interfaces is the TweetDeck UI, which is powered by Twitter. The layout focuses on use of vertical columns which are highly configurable and sensitive to gestures of the mouse. If combined with a touch screen, this changes to finger gesture sensitivity, where an individual can flick between columns quickly using only the fingers. It's fast, efficient, and actually kind of fun.


But perhaps the most pertinent example is that of Microsoft Pixelsense (formerly known as Microsoft Surface 1.0). In 2007, Microsoft developed a highly advanced tabletop computer system with the ability to read anything placed upon it. The attached video samples some of the possibilities. Now that tablets have become mainstream, it will not be long before they too can perform all of the capabilities of this tabletop UI, and far more.