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Comment by jedharris | Hacker News Reader

I'm surprised that none of these comments address the completely new interaction paradigm -- eye tracking + hand gesture tracking. Previous devices couldn't track accurately enough to provide high quality user interaction this way. All the ones I know about required holding controllers.

If this is successful it will be the first completely new interaction paradigm since the mouse. Of course so far interactions are mapped down to hover and click because existing software can then run, but the UI tools aren't limited to that at all.

I'd expect that in five years we'll have a completely different sense of interaction with content through Vision (or Vision like products).

(For those who want to quibble -- Touch is somewhat new relative to the mouse, and multi-touch gestures are truly new but very limited. But the design of apps and user interaction hasn't significantly evolved relative to the mouse-bound era.)

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Eye tracking and hand gesture tracking are hardly new, even used in conjunction. The issue is, as pointed out, none do it well (accurately) enough to be of quality use but progress has certainly been made over a few decades. I've not used the new Apple device but I'd be surprised if accuracy is still good enough. I'll be happy to be wrong but I suspect there's still a fair amount if work needed to get us to a point your average user is happy with. We already complain about touch devices like touch screens which are steps above anything current gesture and eye tracking I've seen can currently do (to my knowledge). People still want physical high precision keys, knobs, button and physical devices like controllers. Tactile feedback is part of it but the accuracy/precision is a larger part.

Completely true.

What I’m most excited about is to see what people do with the UX.

We are no longer confined to windows that scroll up, down, left, and right.

Application’s now have depth, and the spatial concept will mean the way we view and interact with applications will change completely.

I’m very excited for this.

The PS5 also does the eye tracking really well. It still sucks compared to using controllers. The tactile feedback of the buttons along with the very subtle activation motions is a touch beyond gestures. (In particular, they work together. Without the tactile feedback to know you have released a button, it is hard to reengage it fast enough.)

> "… does the eye tracking really well. It still sucks…"

Perhaps re-calibrate "really well"?

> "very subtle activation motions is a touch beyond gestures"

(We see what you punned there.)

> "tactile feedback to know you have released a button"

With the VisionPro, a click is a touch of forefinger and thumb. That's literally twice the touch feedback of a button.

Ha! I didn't actually do that pun on purpose. Does work, though.

With a controller, though, you don't have to lose contact with the buttons for activation. Even with a keyboard, where you do lose contact, you feel for the activation of the buttons to do so.

More immediately, though, you also have more fingers for rapid fire activation. Some silly math, but if you type upwards of 70wpm, that puts you at about 400 button presses per minute. Not sure how easily that would translate to gestures, as far as speed is concerned.

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