John Underkoffler has high hopes for the user interfaces of the future.
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Why user interface designers must take cues from science fiction and games

John Underkoffler gave an illuminating talk about the future of computing interfaces — and how slow the tech industry has been about creating new ones — at our recent GamesBeat Summit event in Berkeley, Calif.

His talk was, unsurprisingly, wonderfully visual as he stepped through the evolution of early augmented reality. His talk was important because it came from years of work trying to bridge science, science fiction, games, and business. Underkoffler is one of the seers who wants to enable new kinds of thinking and creativity through innovations in how we interact with the digital and physical worlds.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.