History Main / UnusualUserInterface

->--Aisha Clan Clan, ''OutlawStar''

** Of course, since Moya is alive, one wonders whether Pilot controls the ship, so much as negotiates with her.

*** The workings of newer Ancient tech was explained as Ancients posessing a certain gene which caused the skin to secrete a special protein which acts as the interface between the user and the mind. Due to interbreeding, ordinary humans posess the gene as well, though it is extremely rare. Even if someone has the gene, it's "strength" varies; for example, many requires seconds of intense concentration to even activate an Ancient control chair, yet [[ColonelBadass Lt. Col. Sheppard]] can activate one by just sitting on it.

* {{Sigma Star}} has the aliens interface with their techno-organic spaceships via the full-body parasites that they wear. The parasite-ship connection is such that a patrolling ship can instantly teleport the nearest parasite-wearing person into their hull in order to take command.

*** Dreadnoughts are also mentionable, since you have to be pretty close to dead, and have had to have done something pretty epic just prior, or have been in a very good standing within their force to justify being placed in one. The Dreadnought is equal parts WalkingTank and [[ManInTheMachine life support]] for the pilot. For the [[KnightsTemplar Loyaist Marines]], this is seen as one of the greatest privileges that they can achieve. For different reasons, the [[EvilCounterpart Chaos Marines]] see [[AndIMustScream being in a dreadnought]] as something that is [[Understatement less than pleasant]].

** Don't forget the control systems of Titans, where the command crew are linked by wires that enter the brain through the edges of the eye socket.

** The Eldar have a slightly cleaner version of this whereby technology is controlled by psychic manipulation. Also worth noting are the Wraithlords and Wraithguard, small mecha that are controlled directly by a deceased soul.
*** Eldar Titans have to be controlled by telepathically linked identical twins (or triplets for the larger ones). Given their species' low birth rate, these incredibly powerful war machines are thankfully quite rare.

** all those have got nothing on dreadnoughts, where you have to be dead (or close enough to dead) and have had to have done something pretty epic just prior to that death to earn the "privilege".
** Let's not forget the always fun and exciting passages through the warp. The Navigator, a human mutant who has a third eye capable of seeing in the warp, sits in a chair that he is literally wired into (including a tube that deposits saline capsules into his mouth to prevent him from dehydrating), which is then raised into a transparent hemisphere on the surface of the ship, where he pilots the vessel as it travels through hell. The only navigational landmark for him to use is the Astronomican, and eldtrich horrors that would drive a normal person insane constantly gnash and throw themselves at the vessel, kept at bay only the Gellar Field which the ship generates for (relative) safe passage through the warp. The results of a ship's Gellar Field failing are, [[{{Understatement}} to put it lightly, rather unpleasant]].

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* The Kinect motion controller for the Xbox 360 was [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11742236 hacked within days of its release]] to allow it to be used as a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC0bLDd98ho&feature=related multitouch interface]] with PCs, including Apple and Linux machines.

* Pip from Webcomic/''SequentialArt'' [[http://www.collectedcurios.com/sequentialart.php?s=659 has]] a recurring nightmare about this.

* In ''Cosmos'', CarlSagan controlled his dandelion-seed-shaped "Spaceship of the Imagination" by waving his hands over a control panel embedded with quartz crystals with colored lights shining through them.

*** Most warships are ''commanded'' verbally. They do have a normal crew who presumably ''operate'' the ship with more or less normal control interfaces, just not in the same room as the commander(s).

* Bedivere in the Space Arc of ''ArthurKingOfTimeAndSpace'' has an I/O jack replacing [[strike:her]] his [ArtificialLimbs missing hand]]. [[http://www.arthurkingoftimeandspace.com/1065.htm Largely for the sake of a pun]].

** Not entirely. It seems to be that she merely facilitates the ease-of-use of the ships supposedly complex systems, since while she can control the ship if need be, the Outlaw Star is much more capable with Gene or Jim at the wheel as well, so to speak.

* On the ''LandOfTheLost'' series, pylons were controlled by arranging different colors of crystal on a glowing grid at the top of a stone pedestal. This was made ''insanely'' difficult by the sheer number of possible combinations of colors, as well as the tendency of crystals to blow up, get hot, generate force fields, or whatever if they actually came into contact with one another. (But then, if it was ''easy'' to operate the portal-opening pylon, the Marshalls could've just camped out inside it for a few days until they triggered a portal leading home, SoYeah.)

*Various 'unusual' interfaces exist the allow people with disabilities to interface with computers, or their wheel chairs, or other people. The most unusual of all would probably have to be a tube in the mouth manipulated by the tongue.

* In ''{{Terminator}}: TheSarahConnorChronicles'', a first-season episode shows that John Connor is capable of connecting an advanced robot CPU chip into his computer (via a hot-swap SATA drive dock, no less) to read the memory files stored on the chip. He takes this one step farther when he uses the CPU chip of "good" Terminator Cameron to access the traffic mainframe of downtown Los Angeles [[spoiler:in order to upload a virus to Skynet's "proto" nervous system]]. Given the fact that these chips consist of technology that won't be invented for years, one has to wonder where John was able to find a compatible interface...