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Sentient Computing Lab
dedair writes "From the people who brought you VNC, AT&T labs has been working on an ultrasonic location system that they use in their labs in Cambridge, Engalnd. It turns a whole building into a virtual computing center. No matter where you are in the building, your phone calls can be forwarded to you and with the use of VNC, your desktop is always in front of you. Pretty cool stuff with more
details at their website."
There'll be no more hiding in the coffee room, or in the bathroom. It'll destroy civilization! (Or, at least, the managerial part.)
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
- It could be annoying. Yes it was kewl that whenever the phone in the hall rang as you passed you knew it was for you. It was a feature to the VC folks that customers could reach us continiously. On the other hand it meant you were continually being interupted, often when you didn't have the resources to make sense of the call. Since our system was overseen by the company operators we soon settled on popping into their pen and explictly telling them when we were "unavailiable" or eventually just ditching our cards in our desk when we wanted to be 'offline'.
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Our system showed how long one had been in a location with a five-minute line trailing behind us. This proved to be a great way for monitoring (spying) who was meeting with who and for how long & where. It also proved to be a great way to 'look busy' whenever one's boss came down the hall.
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We quickly killed the transponders in the bathrooms - we all felt there was a limit to the services we would need in there (aluminum foil works nicely over these devices.)
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Many of the staff had half-height offices; imagine cubes but with real wall open on two sides. I recall one way 'seeing' one of my co-workers (a rather sturdy woman) suddenly 'leap' from her own half-height office directly into the adjacent one without going into the hallway. Curious as to why (the fellow in the next office wasn't a prize) I walked down only to discover her missing. It turned out she'd snuck out for an extended lunch (to pick up a gift we'd all chipped in for) and her badge was being tossed around to make it look like she was still around.
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Since most of us had multiple systems in our offices (3 & 4 wasn't unusual, 7 & 8 were getting extreme simply due to heat-issues) it was typical to keep one window open monitoring the badges. It soon got so we could tell at a glance who was each track simply by their habits - so & so always walks clockwise around the building,it must be noon since A has gone to B's office, they usually eat together, etc. It was amzing how much detail on eachothers personal habits we all quickly absorbed, often times more then any of us cared to know or have known.
Frankly it was interesting but I'd not be enthused in using such a system again.To a large extent cellphones with text-messaging & email gateways have replaced much of the functioniality (it's easier to reach us at our designated phone then have a nearby one ring for us plus we can accept/decline the call based on who it is and recieve simple text-messages.)
Corporate directory services & biometric logins have replaced another large part of the functioniality. It's not much more of a bother to stick one's thumb in the reader then to walk into the office & since the system was sometimes overzealous (I just walked in to talk, not to log out some poor coder halfway through a thought simply 'cause I was Sr.) this feature was soon turned off.
What's left is more of the Big-Brother people-tracking features that weren't so appreciated.
Frankly while I think it's a neat technology much of it will probably appear in a less-automated way. We'll be able to adjust common things using our phones / palmstops / whatever using a virtual dimmer / volume control / etc. and come up with a room consensus, or at least local variations. Secured doors will unlock automagically as we push against them instead of requiring an explicit keycard swipe.
But tracking, thanks, been there / done that / not interested.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
Actually you're recalling a program on Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and their pervasive computing model.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
My company has been doing the phone transfers to where ever you are in the building for quite a while now using pagers. www.prioritycall.com Now the teleporting desktops thing however, is a Really Cool Thing (tm). Ben
I recall this from a show on Discovery (I think, or PBS), well before AT&T bought them. They would wear little badges around and the building could tell where they were. Yes, even in the bathroom.
It's a pretty swell idea, you never miss phone calls. But then you can never AVOID phone calls either, which I guess would suck.
I like music
who needs vnc anyways?
what bennefit does it have over ssh + X11 forwarding? (besides running on windows)
Try starting X with no window manager and no desktop (i.e. no gdm and blank your ~/xinit) then ssh and start up your favorite WM remotely
On the other hand, what if you normally have an office but you use the hotdesking feature just to get to your desktop when you're out travelling at other company sites or in other areas of the building?
Just yesterday our whole group went down to a test lab as a group to try a mass testing of our app where we were all together in one room at the same time. I used VNC to let us have access to the server to view logs and fix small problems while the test was in progress, really handy.
Also, at a local Sun campus things seem to work more that way. My friends there have permanent offices (well, as permanent as any office ever is!). They also have some of the exact same hosting cubes that the original poster described for employees visiting from other buildings or states to access thier desktop.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It's a great system, but I don't much like being a nomad.
I don't get the motivation behind hot-desking - it seems a really good way of demoralisng your entire workforce for very little gain. We're naturally territorial - as are most living things. The first thing anybody ever does is to define a bit of sapce in the world as their own by putting up pictures, unpacking their favourite coffee cup/stuffed lizard/electric pencil sharpner. Living in hotel rooms is miserable (even if your significant other is there too) simply because it's impersonal and dehuminising. Hot-desking is, for this reason alone, a really bad idea.
Interesting you're at Sun - another thing that didn't quite work out was the diskless computer. I wonder if part of this is for the same reason - I know you get your filestore, desktop and so on, but its still not your computer with its own local drive, humming power-supply fan, and (goddam it), smell.
Do you try to book the same cuboid every day?
... so how does it manage that then? I would have thought an ultrasonic 'ping' will just give you a point, not a direction...
I wonder how much of this is inspired by cheap science fiction programs - all the user interfaces in Space 1999 were made out of paper too...
I don't know, sounds a bit 'Big Brother' -ish to me.
#include "disclaim.h"
"All the best people in life seem to like LINUX." - Steve Wozniak
#include "disclaim.h"
"All the best people in life seem to like LINUX." - Steve Wozniak
IIRC, it was called Tabs, Pads, and Boards. Basically, the badges were the Tabs - that tracked you through the building. The Pads were essentially wireless network palm style devices (maybe Newton sized, IIRC). They could communicate between each other, so that if one person wrote on his Pad, others in the "meeting" could see his ideas, etc. The "Boards" were large electronic whiteboards, also networked to the Pads, to allow everyone to "collaborate" in the meeting, and carry the data back with them (how often have you wished you had what was on the whiteboard? Sucks to redraw it out).
This was MANY years ago - at least 10 years ago. I remember seeing it while I was in high school. Only now are the pieces really falling into place.
I just wonder why it takes so damn long for these type things to catch on (like multimedia - started in the mid-80's with the Amiga, didn't become popular until the mid-90's with the PC).
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
...if I recall correctly. It might be somebody else, but I distinctly remember reading an article about this many years ago.
The one I remember works like this (I can't get to the linked article, bad network today). An embedded chip in the company ID badge serves as the locator, but only functions while on campus. When sombody dials "your" number, the system finds you, finds the telephone nearest to you, and rings that 'phone.
Like I say, this isn't new, but I cannot recall whether that place was Bell Labs or somewhere else. Almost certain it was Bell Labs. And, of course, that was only the telephone system -- nothing about VNC, etc, etc.
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
Sounds a bit creepy to me. In order for your computer profile to "follow" you, you have to use tracking technology (called "bats" here).
The truth is, people don't like to be tracked, at home, or at work (privacy, anyone?) We reluctantly accept the fact that we have to wear badges to work, and scan into locked doors, et cetera, but I do not want my employer to have the ability to determine my physical location every second of the workday. $megacorp does have the right to make sure that I am being productive, but that can much more easily be done by using performance metrics (you pushed 4000 papers today!) and, ideally, with the employee's direct relationship to his/her supervisor.
Furthermore, tracking users is not "sentience." this is simply determining the presence or absence of a value given a location. Granted, they took a n additional step in making someones' computer profile follow them wherever they go, but even NT can do that! (to a much lesser extent, but still roaming profiles)
It's becoming impossible to get a job without losing intellectual property rights to your employer, which suggests that the only way to have such rights is to be an employer.
Well to be an employer man you gotta have money.
Cuz once you got money, all the wannabes will back you up no matter what shit you pull. If you can get away with it they figure someday they will too or they'll just invest in your little racket and profit regardless whether you ever get caught or not. If people can't control their spending, fuck it gimme every dime. Why? So I can buy a couple of public libraries, build a house on a mountain, grow a forest around it and make scary noises in the middle of the night to keep the fearful away.
Then I can go back to being a normal techie interested in learning and can keep the little brethren at arms length.
C'est la vive.
The message on the other side of this sig is false.
It has a few disadvantages too. It's flaky on windows (Can't hook into the graphics context so has to take screen snapshots) and a bandwidth hog but remember, the task is not to find the "best" way to implement a user interface to a computer but the one most suitable for the job (I've found it a godsend when debugging keyboardless kiosk applications)
Rich
Much more powerful people tracking systems exist. The prison industry is big on this stuff. This system has a particularly cool animated graphic.
The real utility here is to have a system where anybody can use any computer in an office and see their environment, just like the old dumb terminal days. Somebody should put that into a Linux distro. It would give Linux something that Windows doesn't have, and given Microsoft's pricing model for software, won't have.
Remember, it was The Consipiracy that coined the term 'paranoid' to discredit people who know the truth. :-)
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
When I get back to someone, I just say "Hi, I'm returning your call." I don't feel the need to explain why they got my voicemail, because I am not obligated to pick up the phone whenever it rings.
I guess I am pretty lucky in the workpace. I have told our CEO when he knocked on my door that I was in the middle of a design discussion, and could I catch him in his office in a little while? I can do that because he understands I have tasks to do, and wants me to do them effectively. Others' mileage may vary.
"Rub her feet." -- L.L.
Sean
Sean
Sean
Hm. Well that first diagram on the page looks like some new age/ societies of the mind mesh illustration, and I cant figure out if the 'The world as seen by the sentient computing system' is creepy or just funny, it looks a bit too much like some sort of Quake office shooter.
..Oh.. and that 'bat' tracking device looks kind of big and lumpy, especially if you've allready got a high batman factor to your belt. Wouldn't it be more convenient if they just implanted tracking chips in your neck?
air and light and time and space
1) Lan intergration into houses was a routine low maintenance item
2) The Software for the servers were well maintained, and did not require the home owner to intervene
3) The home owner would be educated to not mess with the system (think of your usual riff-raff of corporate users. Now remember that a lot of these folks own homes.
4) The default failure mode for these system is not life threatening, but allows basic manual operation of things like heat, etc.
5) the home owner is sold on the idea that he never messes with the system.
6) The homes in a neighborhood and across the town and state, etc are integrated into a flawless system not subject to weather conditions, earthquakes, and other natural disaters.
7) Political parties would have to cooperate like factions of a mafia family, without greed, to make sure that the system is maintained in perfect harmony.
8) Commercial interests who want their fingers in the pie are kept in line
9) ETC.
Sounds easy to me
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Seems like whenever there's an article that has something to with pagers or cell-phones, someone says something to the effect of "I don't carry any of these things because it's an intrusion of my privacy, and besides, I like interacting with people the old-fashioned way." Often, it's said in a holier-than-thou way that I find really annoying.
Now, I'm not accusing you (JJ) of saying this; the way I read your post, you were just stating your own opinion, which is quite fair enough. And you did add a bit about how you interact with your co-workers, which is positive for this discussion.
But all too often, people say things which basically boil down to "I don't like pagers and cell-phones!", which is not particularly insightful or illuminating. Giving a personal opinion is all well and good, but this opinion has already been said by zillions of people zillions of times, on Slashdot and in countless other forums. Why not try and add something more original to the discussion?
(After all, if you don't want to be disturbed, you can turn it off.)
Sorry for the slight rant.
(For the record, I don't carry a pager or a cell-phone, but I have nothing against them.)
--
Accountability on the heads of the powerful.
Power in the hands of the accountable.
Besides, the Windows deal, X forwarding doesn't let you take control of a program session that's in the middle of being worked on. As such, the project mentioned here (namely, having your desktop follow you around from machine to machine automatically), Just Wouldn't Work with X forwarding.
That still doesn't address the issue of your current desktop. My desktop is defined by both the programs that start up when I login, as well as the programs that I currently have up and running. Starting up a remote WM addresses the former, but it doesn't magicially transfer programs that're in the middle of running. If I were in the middle of reading Slashdot on one desktop, even if my desktop contained a thing to auto-start Netscape, I'd still have to manually renavigate to where I was on the site.
Looking at this screenshot I would guess that to the left of our Mr.RMC is actually the Coffee Pot.
Overall - Pretty scary idea, how would you like the %time spent in the bathroom appearing on your performance review, or within 5ft of the printer, or 5ft within the coffee pot.
Does anyone have to say "Big Brother"?
it's called a cell phone
sulli
RTFJ.
"It smacks of Big Brother. Personally I do not tend to be (overly) paranoid"
No one intends to be "Overly Paranoid"
As x approaches total apathy I couldn't care less.
Yeah, and then when the stressed out guy at the end of the hall who's wife just left him finally goes postal, he can just slap on some VR goggles and he'll be sure not to miss out on anyone.
There are a thousand forms of subversion, but few can equal the convenience and immediacy of a cream pie -Noel Godin
I don't need the stress of having to be responsbile for my job while I am shopping/pissing/viewing pr0n... I certainly don't need to be responsible for actually *doing* my job when I am walking around to different parts of the building. That's just nuts!
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How hard is it to convert those realtime maps into Q3 levels?
"Where's Jones?" my boss says as he walks down the hallway.
"Oh, I saw him in the cube farm. Look's like he's working on the 3d building graphics project."
Of course, the boss would never know that what I was really doing was waiting for him around the corner with the rocket launcher and a good ol' boom-stick as backup.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Sentient (adj.) : possessing consciousness or the ability to think for itself.
While well programmed, this lab isn't sentient or even intelligent...
I wonder if part of this is for the same reason - I know you get your filestore, desktop and so on, but its still not your computer with its own local drive, humming power-supply fan, and (goddam it), smell.
Well, I have my own development server locked in a room somewhere. I can't hear or smell it, but it's still mine.
Do you try to book the same cuboid every day?
You can only reserve them for five days at a time so I mostly stay in once place all week. But I often don't get the same room. And some rooms are better than others. I can look down a long hallway at the moment, 45 degrees to me left. It's an annoying visual distraction. There's good sound-proofing though. The reservation system also has a few bugs so sometimes, there are collisions. I got bumped a couple weeks ago by another person while I was at lunch. We both had valid reservations. The most annoying thing, though, is that I can't keep my reference books handy. They have lockers (just like high school, no kidding) but that's annoying. And I also can't keep my small lego collection handy.
Disconnect your television. Do your own research. Draw your own conclusions. They're probably lying. Don't be a sheep.
I carry no pager. I don't have a mobile phone. I walk away from my desk and go outside to get some fresh air and resolve the issues that come up during my programming duties. I talk to people in other departments to find out what the issues there are and how my work should help solve them. These are all things that make me successful. The last thing I want is the whole building following me around.
So long and thanks for all the fish . . . !!!
Also, I like the Sims-esque 3D image. I bet it's a farking blast to watch your coworkers on this thing in realtime.
1) Start napster at my current desk
2) walk into a bathroom stall
3) use the terminal on the back of the door to start playing my newly downloaded song(s)
4) answer the phone there when the RIAA calls?
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I think this is a really interesting evolution of the smart-card identifier for terminals, creating a mobile desktop. This starts causing the environment to react to the specific presence of the user. From the JavaOne JavaRing demo of knowing what your coffee preference was, up to this system with speaker-specific transcription services, we may finally get to a technological workplace that enables us rather than causes us to conform to yet another interface.
And as the point to ponder, we are going to need to look at the intent more carefully in legislation. Is is now possible to profile people so completely via spending patterns, location, communication tendencies, etc. that unscrupulous corporation could manipulate trends in people reasonably easily. The laws need to adapt to prevent this misuse, and yet enable honest companies and people to provide legitimate, privacy-ensured services to people that want them without fear of this manipulation.
I'm not a lawyer, but that's how the laws started, was to uphold the moral views of the majority. It appears to me that we will need to return there soon, or we will be forced to forego these types of enabling technologies as are shown by AT&T and these other companies.
You wanna rant, do it offline.
You wanna think, do it here.
The Olivetti and Oracle Research Labs were acquired by in January 1998 by AT&T Research to form AT&T Labs Cambridge. The same guys work there, doing the same research, under a different banner.
Perhaps moderators need a "This guy is well-meaning but misinformed" option, which demotes the comment, but doesnt detract from the guy's karma? Hmm...
I'm working on a contract at Sun Microsystems at the moment. I have a five-digit phone extension and this thing called a sunray card, but no real cube. Instead, I reserve a cube (really, it's more like a cross between a shower, closet, and phone booth with a patio door) with an intranet application. Then I go to the room with a thin client machine and a 21" monitor. I put the sunray card in and it instantly displays my X session from yesterday. No logging in. All my windows are still open. I can do my work and move to another machine if necessary. Without loggin out, I can pull the card and move to another machine or come back tomorrow. And for the phones, I log in with an access code. My wife can call me at a specific number that doesn't change and the phone system rings the phone I'm next to. It's a great system, but I don't much like being a nomad.
Disconnect your television. Do your own research. Draw your own conclusions. They're probably lying. Don't be a sheep.