[ravila4]

I think one key reason HUDs haven’t taken off more broadly is the fundamental limitation of our current display medium - computer screens and mobile devices are terrible at providing ambient, peripheral information without being intrusive. When I launch an AI agent to fix a bug or handle a complex task, there’s this awkward wait time where it takes too long for me to sit there staring at the screen waiting for output, but it’s too short for me to disengage and do something else meaningful. A HUD approach would give me a much shorter feedback loop. I could see what the AI is doing in my peripheral vision and decide moment-to-moment whether to jump in and take over the coding myself, or let the agent continue while I work on something else. Instead of being locked into either “full attention on the agent” or “completely disengaged,” I’d have that ambient awareness that lets me dynamically choose my level of involvement. This makes me think VR/AR could be the killer application for AI HUDs. Spatial computing gives us the display paradigm where AI assistance can be truly ambient rather than demanding your full visual attention on a 2D screen. I picture that this would be especially helpful for help on more physical tasks, such as cooking, or fixing a bike.

[elliotec]

You just described what I do with my ultrawide monitor and laptop screen.

I can be fully immersed in a game or anything and keep Claude in a corner of a tmux window next to a browser on the other monitor and jump in whenever I see it get to the next step or whatever.

[ravila4]

It’s a similar idea, but imagine you could fire off a task, and go for a run, or do the dishes. Then be notified when it completes, and have the option to review the changes, or see a summary of tests that are failing, without having to be at your workstation.

[Cthulhu_]

The only real life usage of any kind of HUD I can imagine at the moment is navigation, and I have only ever used that (or other car related things) as something I selectively look at, never felt like it's something I need to have in sight at all times.

That said, the best GUI is the one you don't notice, so uh... I can't actually name anything else, it's probably deeply engrained in my computer usage.