Picture-driven computing

Researchers at MIT have a new system that allows one to program with screenshots.  For example, to get a message to a cell phone when a bus reaches a corner, “the programmer can simply plug screen shots into the script: when this (the pin) gets here (the corner), send me a text.”  It sounds too good to be true, but when Allen Cypher says it’s good, you gotta be impressed.

“When I saw that, I thought, ‘Oh my God, you can do that?’” says Allen Cypher, a researcher at IBM’s Almaden Research Center who specializes in human-computer interactions. “I certainly never thought that you could do anything like that. Not only do they do it; they do it well. It’s already practical. I want to use it right away to do things I couldn’t do before.”

via Picture-driven computing.

The article also says, “The researchers say that Sikuli could allow novice computer users to create their own programs without having to master a programming language.”  Interesting question: Would this increase interest in programming (“I can do that?  What else can I do?”) or decrease interest (“I can do whatever I want this way — why go further?”)?