New Trends in Software Design
Ian Wells, Consultant Computer Scientist, The Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Trust and Visiting Professor, University of Surrey

Mention a computer today and the ubiquitous ‘windows’ interface will spring to mind.

This desktop metaphor was originally developed by researchers at Xerox PARC and employs the now familiar WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointing device) components.

The first commercially available computers using this interface were the Star workstation from Xerox (1981) and the Macintosh personal computer from Apple (1984), and although the basic concepts these introduced have been extensively copied and refined there have been no radical changes in over twenty years.

This is, however, about to change and some of the new features that we can expect to see in the so-called third generation computer interface can be found in recently launched products - most particularly in portable devices with a touch-based user interface. The Apple iPhone makes an interesting case study in this field, especially as the most recent update to its software provides a much wider range of developer APIs and a number of medical applications are available.

This group will focus on these new trends, and look in particular at the following questions:
- what are the main features we can expect to see in the third generation computer interface?
- how are they implemented in currently available products (with practical examples)?
- what are the implications for the medical devices of the future?