I suspect that in a few years a hololens / google glass style device will become cheaper and work as well as a big bank of monitors, and at that point it is going to rapidly replace physical monitors - and then economy of scale and iteration of the product will do the usual to the price/performance ratio of head-mounted devices, then screens go the way of CRT monitors when flat screens came along.
I'm not saying that a head-mounted device and virtual screens will necessarily be better than a bank of monitors - in fact it's time to asses drawbacks - but once it's cheaper and seems "just as good" then business will want to switch over, for better or worse.
I wonder if an AR device that only renders stationary floating text could be produced with much lower GPU (and thus power) requirements than the current crop of headsets.
What I want is a computer + headset that can be fully powered by moderate exercise. From what I've read, manual labor averages about 75 watts of mechanical power throughout the work day, so with conversion losses, maybe 20 watts produced by pedaling or rowing action. Then I could "sit at the desk" all day without wasting away, and do it from the middle of a forest or the top of a mountain if I wanted to.
"Need" is a strong word, but you'll probably want to if you're trying to be productive. VR/AR won't replace the tactile feedback of a good keyboard, etc.
Then again, as someone who can't even use current VR/AR offerings (high myopia, don't use contact lenses) and is only following all of this as a fairly disinterested spectactor, it looks to me like the initial craze is already blowing over and people are taking a better look at the disadvantages and limitations of the current products. I don't see VR/AR taking over monitors or much of anything else, though I'm sure AR will find productivity applications in specific fields soon enough.
There isn't a voice input in existence that I'd be interested in using while writing code or doing photo/video editing.
Even dictating code to another human who is as fluent as you are in the language of choice is a non-starter, so I don't see any machine based way of doing it catching up soon.
The only solutions I've seen that even "come close" in the speed / accuracy comparison are unfair comparisons.
An example was posted by someone in another comment of a guy doing Python coding with Emacs using Dragon Dictation. In that example, the guy used over 2,000 custom "macros" to get to something close to his pre-RSI speeds. This sounds fantastic, but the speeds of a typer who has learned to leverage 2,000 custom macros would be an order of magnitude faster (imho) than someone dictating using similar macros.
Neither gestures nor voice input will ever eliminate keyboards for the simple reason that keyboards are vastly more efficient. No technological innovation can ever change that because the limitation is on the human side of things.
Futuristic solution to keyboards? I've tried lots of keyboards. Probably going to try lots more, there are frequent times when you have to use the only keyboard that's there.
> so saying that you must use a keyboard seems a little premature
What part of "I for one much prefer a physical keyboard" implies "you must use a keyboard" ? I expressed a personal preference, that's all. I don't expect my preference to change, but sure, anything is technically possible though unlikely.
The part where you say to prefer a keyboard to some futuristic solution that doesn’t yet exist. You can’t have an opinion about something that doesn’t yet exist.
Before someone dreamed up the automobile, you would we telling us how you prefer the horse, perhaps just make it faster.
No, but you'll want to be at a desk or a chair with a keyboard mount.
Typing is always going to be more efficient for precision data input until we get to the third or fourth generation of direct brain interface... and nobody wants to be a beta tester for that.
I'm not saying that a head-mounted device and virtual screens will necessarily be better than a bank of monitors - in fact it's time to asses drawbacks - but once it's cheaper and seems "just as good" then business will want to switch over, for better or worse.