There’s a great article in this month’s issue of Scientific American about augmented reality, possibly the next “big thing” in computer graphics and user interfaces.

The reason that article gets me excited is that it signals a departure from and beyond today’s main user interface paradigm, WIMP (Window, Icon, Menu, Pointing device). Every windowing system used today (as far as I know) is a variation on WIMP: all incarnations of Windows, Xfree86, even MacOS X’s shiny new user interface. Despite the cute and “kewl” little features in the latest UIs I can’t help but feel a bit bored with them all. WIMP is tired. WIMP is old news.

Augmented reality, on the other hand, is all-new. Basically the idea is to overlay user interface and informational elements over real-world percepts—typically visual. For example, you could wear a headset, walk along, look at a movie theater and when you hold your gaze on it, the computer would automatically display what movies are playing there, show times, and a user interface to purchase tickets—all overlaid “on top of” into your visual field so you wouldn’t need to look at a screen or display. In another example you could choose a nearby destination and the computer could present a path to get there as a visible “trail” you could follow. And so on…