Celebrating 50 years of computing at CMU

["David Farber" <dave () farber net>]

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> --- Begin Message ---
>
>
> From: Newmedia () aol com
>
> Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 11:54:13 -0400 (EDT)
>
> Experts see computers getting bigger and smaller at the same time:
> Celebrating 50 years of computing at CMU
> http://www.postgazette.com/pg/06113/684425-96.stm
>
> Sunday, April 23, 2006
>
> By Mark Roth, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
>
> When pioneering professors Herbert Simon and Allen Newell began
> working with the first computer at what is now Carnegie Mellon
> University in 1956, they had no clear vision of how their research
> would reshape the world 50 years later.
> .
> So it's no surprise that the experts visiting the campus last week to
> celebrate the 50th anniversary of computing at Carnegie Mellon shied
> away from predicting what the digital universe will look like in 2056.
>
> They were more than happy, though, to share what might come out of
> their labs in the next five to 10 years.
>
> As they talked enthusiastically about electronic books and wall-size
> computers, the corporate and university researchers charted four major
> compass points for the future.
>
> GETTING BIGGER. Rick Rashid, the head of Microsoft Research and a
> former Carnegie Mellon professor, said it's now possible to buy a
> terabyte of computer memory for about $700.
>
> A terabyte, 1,000 gigabytes, is enough memory to "store every
> conversation you ever have from the time you're born until you die,"
> Dr. Rashid said, or a full year's worth of full-time video.
>
> Dan R. Olsen Jr., a computer science professor at Brigham Young
> University, said he could now store every academic paper he's ever
> written, every set of software code he's written, all his e-mail, and
> family genealogy information and photos, and it takes up barely one
> third of the memory space on a simple iPod.
>
> Now that people can store vast amounts of information on their
> computers, the two men said, the real challenge is how to find what
> they need quickly, especially when they're not sure where they put it.
>
> Microsoft is working on a project called Stuff I've Seen that's
> designed to help with that.
>
> If a person can't remember when he created a certain document or even
> what is in it, Dr. Rashid said, he might be able to remember what
> month it was, or with whom he talked that day, or even what the
> weather was. By correlating a user's documents with his computer
> calendar, e-mail, automated weather information and more, Stuff I've
> Seen will produce a set of documents that might include the one the
> person is looking for.
>
> Stuart Card, a senior research fellow at Xerox's Palo Alto Research
> Center, said the other thing that's getting bigger is computer
> displays.
>
> Dr. Card has evidence of that in his own office in California, where
> he has six large computer screens attached to each other. "It has the
> surface area of a 5-foot table," he said.
>
> He can use the screens as one large screen or several smaller ones and
> can easily move information from one area to another. Research
> suggests that having more information arrayed in front of them can
> actually help people have "bigger ideas," Dr. Card said.
>
> Mary Czerwinski, a senior researcher at Microsoft, is working on large
> computer displays that could double as art in people's homes.
>
> The displays could post personal information on the edges that people
> might want to consult quickly, and that can be removed if there is a
> visitor, she said.
>
> "We can make these displays very, very beautiful. Maybe when it is not
> showing information on the periphery it will just be art on the wall."
>
> GETTING SMALLER. The processing power of computers today also means
> they can go into smaller and smaller devices.
>
> At Microsoft's SPOT (Smart Personal Objects Technology) program, the
> first prototype that's been developed is a computerized watch, which
> Dr. Rashid wears.
>
> By getting signals on an FM frequency, the watch can display the
> correct time and weather for the part of the nation where he's
> located, Dr. Rashid said, as well as his daily calendar and other
> information.
>
> At the Xerox research center, the phenomenon of packing more
> information into less space is embodied in the 3Book, a digital book
> that mimics its traditional counterpart but contains a slew of bells
> and whistles.
>
> The 3Book has the appearance of a real book on the computer screen,
> and a reader can turn its pages by touching the corner of each page or
> touching the edge of the display to flip through pages quickly.
>
> Still in the developmental stage, it also contains features that no
> regular book has, Dr. Card said.
>
> It has a searchable index that can be expanded to show all other parts
> of the book related to the search term. Using semantic processing
> software, it can create a CliffNotes version of the book which
> highlights selected passages.
>
> Most importantly, it could store or download thousands of other books
> onto its pages, Dr. Card said.
>
> "People say, 'But I still want to take my paperback to the beach,' "
> Dr. Card said. "I completely agree with them on the one book you take
> to the beach, but you don't want to take your whole library to the
> beach," which is something you could do with 3Book.
>
> MORE PORTABLE. iPods and cell phones show that computing has become
> much more portable than standard computers themselves.
>
> James Landay, laboratory director for Intel Research in Seattle, said
> "the real potential for computing in our lives is all the rest of our
> lives that goes on when we're not in front of the computer."
>
> One experimental demonstration of that is Aware Home, a project at the
> Georgia Institute of Technology.
>
> The idea behind Aware Home is to fill a house with sensors and
> specialized computer programs to help an older person remain healthy
> and stay in the home longer, said Elizabeth Mynatt, a computer
> professor at Georgia Tech.
>
> One project she's working on is a glucose monitor that attaches to a
> cell phone to transmit blood sugar information directly to a computer.
> Motion sensors in the house keep track of how active the occupant is,
> and a computer diary lets her record what she's eating and how she's
> feeling.
>
> Radio frequency tags on medication tell the computer when pill bottles
> have been removed from a cabinet and replaced, and prompt the computer
> to ask the person on a nearby screen whether she has taken her drugs.
>
> By combining all this information, the computer program can tell which
> combinations of diet, exercise and medicine have the best results, Dr.
> Mynatt said. "It gives people the tools to understand that one
> particular pattern is leading to feeling pretty good 24 hours down the
> line," she said.
>
> At Microsoft's lab in Cambridge, England, researchers are developing
> SenseCam, a wearable digital camera that has a 180-degree field of
> vision and motion and infrared sensors.
>
> SenseCam can keep a record of everything you've seen or done during a day.
>
> In an unexpected twist, it has turned out to be useful in helping
> brain-damaged people with memory problems.
>
> One woman couldn't remember anything on her own after a two-day
> period, and diaries kept by her husband helped only for a few days.
>
> But when she viewed one day's worth of pictures from a SenseCam she
> had worn a month before, she was able to remember much of what she did
> that day, even if it wasn't depicted in the photos, Dr. Rashid said.
>
> QUICKER TO CHANGE. Ben Bederson, a computer science professor at the
> University of Maryland, said the most popular new Web sites are being
> driven by the quicksilver tastes of young people.
>
> Sites such as MySpace and Flickr are easy to use, he said, and often
> are built around one primary niche, such as Flickr's photo-sharing
> technology.
>
> The sites embody two other features, he said: democracy -- "These
> sites are bringing together communities of millions of users"; and
> "users rule"-- customers quickly move to another site if the first one
> doesn't satisfy them.
>
> These hot Web sites are an example of how computer and software
> designers will have to focus on what consumers want and need, the
> researchers agreed.
>
> It might lead to more products such as Microsoft's StepMail, an
> experimental program in which people use their feet to open and send
> e-mail, employing a pressure pad on the floor from the game Dance,
> Dance Revolution.
>
> Other examples, Dr. Rashid said, are new photo programs that allow
> someone to remove a person or object from a photo and fill in the
> background automatically, or stitch together a family photo montage
> using the best shots of faces from different photos.
>
> In some rural villages in India, people have set up small shops to
> enhance digital photos to make people look better or fill in a
> different background, he said, "because, fundamentally, people want
> keepsakes, and they want to look as good as possible. It's a very
> human desire."
>
> It's possible all this technology will start to change the way
> people's brains work, said Judith Olson, a computer professor at the
> University of Michigan.
>
> Young people learn to type earlier than ever, can do several things at
> once but have trouble concentrating on a single task, are comfortable
> with waiting until the last minute to plan social gatherings and don't
> have as much expertise because they rely on the Web or their social
> network to find the answers they need.
>
> Put it all together, she said, "and it may lead to a permanent change
> in cognition."
>
> (Mark Roth can be reached at mroth () post-gazette com or at 412-263-1130. )
>
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