The Future of Input

Increasingly, input will be performed in remote locations and will rely on source data automation.

Future source data automation will include high-capacity bar codes, 3-D scanners, more sophisticated touch devices, smarter smart cards and optical cards, better voice recognition, smaller electronic cameras, and brainwave input devices.

Input technology seems headed in two directions: (1) toward more input devices in remote locations and (2) toward more refinements in source-data automation.

Toward More Input from Remote Locations

When management consultant Steve Kaye of Santa Ana, California, wants to change a brochure or company letterhead, he doesn't have to drop everything and drive over to a printer. He simply enters his requests through the phone line to an electronic bulletin board at the Sir Speedy print shop that he deals with. "What this does is free me up to focus on my business," Kaye says. The linkage of computers and telecommunications means that input may be done nearly anywhere. Not so long ago, for example, airlines installed tele­phones in seatbacks for passengers to use. Now they are installing modems and other connections. Recently Delta Air Lines began employing a new technology that includes a Delta "button" in software being built into many microcomputers and modems for home use. The button allows users to com­municate voice and data information to book reservations and get other travel information.

Toward More Source Data Automation

The keyboard will always be with us, but increasingly input technology is designed to capture data at its source. This will reduce the costs and mis­takes that come with copying or otherwise preparing data in a form suitable for processing.

Some reports from the input-technology front:

Traditional bar codes read only horizontally. A new generation of bar codes has appeared that reads vertically as well, which enables them to store more than 100 times the data of traditional bar codes. With the ability to pack so much more information in such a small space, bar codes can now be used to include digitized photos, along with a person's date of birth, eye color, blood type, and other personal data. Some states are beginning to use the codes on driver's licenses.

Have difficulty getting the perfect fit in blue jeans? Modern clothes are designed to fit mannequins, which is why it's difficult to get that "sprayed-on" look for people. However, cloth­ing makers [including Levi Strauss, the world's largest jeans maker) have been experimenting with a body scanner that would enable people to buy clothes that fit precisely.

The device—which doesn't use lasers, to alleviate possible cus­tomer health concerns—would allow you to enter a store, put on a body suit, and be measured three-dimensionally all over. You could then select the clothes you're interested in, view them imposed on your body-scanned image on a screen, and then order them custom-manufactured. Clearly, this is the first in a gen­eration of scanners being used for more sophisticated purposes.

Touch screens are becoming commonplace. Sometime in the near future, futurists suggest, you may be able to use a dashboard touch screen in your car. The screen would be linked to mobile electronic "yellow pages" that would enable you to reserve a motel room for the night or find the near­est Chinese restaurant. More interesting, perhaps, is the Phantom from SensAble Devices, which offers a glimpse of what the technology to simu­late touch—known as "force feedback"—can do. Force-feedback devices have been around since the 1970s, when they were developed for remote-control robots to handle radioactive materials. However, the Phantom offers an incredibly sophisticated tactile response. Surgeons-in-training, for instance, may insert their fingers in a "thimble" at the end of a robotic arm and practice what it feels like to discover a tumor in soft brain tis­sue. SensAble also wants to adapt the Phantom as a game joystick, which could simulate, for example, the vibrations of a tank on rough terrain.

Over the next five years or so, stored-value smart cards with microchips, acting as ‘electronic purses' will no doubt begin to displace cash in many transactions. Tar­gets for smart cards are not only convenience stores and toll booths but also battery-powered card readers in newspaper racks and similar devices. Colorado, for instance, has tested parking meters containing smart-card readers and photo cells that reset the meter as soon as a car moves so later drivers can't get free parking time.

Already microchips with identification numbers are being injected into dogs and cats so that, with the help of a scanner, stolen or lost pets can be identified.⁶² Although it's doubtful chip implantation for identification purposes would be extended to people (though it could), smart cards and optical cards could evolve into all-purpose cards including biotechnological identifiers. As one writer suggests, these "could contain medical records, insurance information, driver's license data, security codes for the office or membership club, and frequent flier or other loyalty program information."

Voice recognitions Sensory Circuits of San Jose, California, has built a voice-recognition chip from a simulation of neural network tech­nology (discussed in Chapter 12). This technology processes information in a manner similar to the brain's neurons, so that the neural networks arc capable of learning. As a result, a chip can be trained to recognize dif­ferent words (such as "operator") regardless of who speaks them. Indeed, one company, DSP Communications, has announced a chip that can rec­ognize about 128 words with 97% accuracy. DSP hopes the technology can be used to help drivers speak telephone numbers into their car phones, so they won't have to take their eyes off the road when "dialing."

Gil Amelio, chief executive officer of Apple Computer, predicts that by the year 2005 voice recognition will have achieved the dream of world travelers. That is, you'll be able to speak in English and a voice-recogni­tion device will be able to instantly translate it into another language, such as French or Japanese, so that you can carry on a normal conversation.

Smaller electronic cameras; Digital still cameras and video cameras are fast becoming commonplace. The next development may be the cameia-on-a-chip, which will contain all the components necessary to take a pho­tograph or make a movie. Such a device, called an "active pixel sensor," based on NASA space technology, is now being made by a company called Photobit. Because it can be made on standard semiconductor production lines, the camera-011-a-chip can be made incredibly cheaply, perhaps for I $20 a piece.

Scientists are attempting to build a prototype digital video camera the size of a plastic gambling die. Before long we may see the technology used in toys, portable video phones, baby monitors, and document imaging.

Perhaps the ultimate input device analyzes the elec­trical signals of the brain and translates them into computer commands. Experiments have been successful in getting users to move a cursor on the screen through sheer power of thought. Other experiments have shown users able to type a letter by slowly spelling out the words in their heads. In the future, pilots may be able to direct planes without using their hands, communicating their thoughts through helmet headsets. Totally paralyzed people may gain a way to communicate.

Although there is a very long way to go before brainwave input tech­nology becomes practical, the consequences could be tremendous, not only for handicapped people but for all of us.

Onward

When Stanley Adelman, late of New York City, died at age 72 in November 1995, he took with him some skills that some of his customers will find extremely hard to replace. Adelman was a typewriter repairer considered indispensable by many literary stars—many of whom could not manage the transition to word processors—from novelist Isaac Bashevis Singer to play­wright David Mamet. He was able to fix all kinds of typewriters, including even those for languages he could not read, such as Arabic. Now his talent is no more.

Adelman's demise followed by only a few months the near-death of Smith Corona Corporation, which filed for bankruptcy-court protection from creditors after losing the struggle to sell its typewriters and personal word proces­sors in a world of microcomputers. Clearly, the world is changing, and changing fast. The standard interfaces are obsolete. We look forward to inter­faces that are more intuitive—computers that respond to voice commands, facial expressions, and thoughts, computers with "digital personalities" that understand what we are trying to do and offer assistance when we need it.

Good Habits: Protecting Your Computer System, Your Data, & Your Health

Whether you set up a desktop computer and never move it or tote a portable PC from place to place, you need to be concerned about pro­tection. You don't want your computer to get stolen or zapped by a power surge. You don't want to lose your data. And you certainly don't want to use your health for computer-related reasons. Here are some tips for taking care of these vital areas.

Date: 2015-04-20; view: 1104