When I began writing this article, I came to appreciate just how consequential the evolution of something as seemingly simple as an “interface” has been to the advancement of society. On the surface, an interface is something we rarely think about, it is simply the layer we interact with to access what is happening “under the hood.” It is the screen we look at, the device we touch, or the tool we use to extract information from a deeper system.
For most of my life, I focused primarily on what I could do with an interface or what the software behind it enabled whether learning, working, or gaming – rather than considering the interface itself. It was only in exploring this topic that I began to recognize the interface as something far more significant: not just a medium, but a foundational driver of how we understand and interact with the world. At its core, an interface is a bridge, allowing meaning and knowledge to pass between two worlds: from thought to reality, such as a design in a CAD file through the actual construction of a device or machine. Computer screens and VR devices used today are examples of “visual interfaces”; mediums through which information is rendered visually for human interpretation. A monitor or computer screen acts as an output layer between a computational system and its user. The human-machine interface, such as body suits used by actors to film Hollywood movies or artificial limbs is part of a broader system of interaction, known as an Epistemic Interface, a medium through which knowledge is accessed and constructed.
Most major advancements in human civilization have been marked not only by new ideas but also by new interfaces, or ways in which humans interact with the new ideas, information, tools, or complex systems. It’s funny to think that long before computer monitors, touchscreens, and virtual reality projectors, interfaces had reshaped civilization in far more primitive forms. One of the earliest examples is cuneiform: information pressed into wet clay tablets that were circulated and used to transmit knowledge over 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia.
As societies evolved, so did the interfaces used to transmit information. Ink applied to papyrus, parchment, and animal skin made writing more portable, expressive, and efficient, enabling knowledge to travel across regions and time with greater ease. Religious texts, scientific observations, and legal frameworks spread farther and faster. Knowledge was greatly accelerated with the use of the interface provided by paper, then the printing press, expanding literacy and enabling new ideas, once confined to elite institutions, to reach the general populace. Scientific progress, political movements, and education have all been dramatically reshaped by advances in interface technology.
When computer interfaces arrived, humans were no longer just recording and ingesting information from an interface; they could interact with information within the system. Early command lines required specialized knowledge, but the development of graphical user interfaces like Windows made computing accessible to the general population. Screens, keyboards, mice, and touch interfaces became extensions of human engagement with these tools, and, combined with software, they allowed people to generate entirely new digital environments. The interface was no longer passive; it was now responsive. Today, AI is redefining interfaces yet again. Instead of the traditional computer program that instructs machines step by step, in the AI age, we query and converse with them, guide them, and even collaborate with them. I feel that as an adult I am actually living the science fiction I read as a teen.
The latest paradigm shift in interface technology is the use of the human body itself as an interface. Language, vision, gesturing, and other human behaviors constitute a 3-dimensional expanded interface. The eye is no longer just an organ of vision but a data-rich interface between the body’s internal systems and external analytical tools uniquely suited for this role. It is the only place in the human body where blood vessels, nerves, and connective tissue can be directly observed non-invasively, and because of this, the human eye is on the brink of becoming one of the most important AI interfaces in healthcare. Oculomics, the science of extracting systemic health information from digital image analysis of the eye, is the art and science of using advances in imaging, combined with AI-driven pattern recognition of subtle ocular biomarkers, to reveal insights into cardiovascular disease, neurological conditions, metabolic disorders, and more.
In Oculomics, high-resolution retinal imaging, OCT, and other multimodal scans generate vast datasets that AI systems can interpret far beyond what a human can discern visually. Information extracted from microscopic patterns in the retinal and retinal vessels, color and contrast differentials between the layers of the retina, otherwise invisible to clinicians are data AI systems can use to accurately diagnose health conditions, both ocular and systemic.
Tech companies at the intersection of optics, imaging, and AI, such as Topcon, are building platforms that treat the eye as the gateway to whole health. These systems do not replace clinicians; they augment them by turning routine eye exams into powerful screening tools. They create a bridge over which eye care providers and other physicians will be much more engaged in collaborative care.
This change in the diagnostic interface, from outside of the human body to the body itself, represents a profound evolution. I sometimes wonder what clinicians of yesteryear like my father, would say if they could see how far we’ve come in using the eye as a whole-health diagnostic device. Over the past 200 years, traditional interfaces have assisted health care providers in externalizing thought and interacting with tools to provide the best possible care. Now, the human body itself is the interface, enabling humans to better understand their whole health. By leveraging the eye as an interface, AI and data, Oculomics promises to identify subtle physiological changes, turning them into actionable healthcare insights that improve, save, and extend lives in the process. In this way, the eye is transformed from a window to the soul into the most important interface for shaping the future of healthcare.
