Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Why Hal Will Never Exist

Posted by michael on from the read-my-lips dept.

aengblom writes "Researchers at the University of Maryland's Human-Computer Interaction Lab are suggesting what many of us have already guessed. The future of human-computer interaction won't be through speech--it will remain visual (they explain why). The Washington Post is running a story about the researchers and how they think we will get computers to do what we want. The article is a fascinating read and is joined by a great video clip (real or quicktime) of the researchers and their methods. The Post is holding an online discussion with the researchers tomorrow. Also check-out Photomesa the lab's software program that helps track images on a computer. (Throw a directory with a 1,000 high-res files at this thing and you can justify that pricey new computer you bought)."

14 of 325 comments (clear)

  1. Wrong Take by XPulga · · Score: 5, Funny
    ...how they think we will get computers to do what we want...

    What ?? I thought the current research line in HCI was getting computers to get humans to do what they [computers] want. Computers doing what humans mistell them to do is soooo 20th Century...

  2. Who wants HAL anyway? by ObviousGuy · · Score: 5, Funny

    An insane bot is not the kind of thing people would find useful.

    --
    I have been pwned because my /. password was too easy to guess.
    1. Re:Who wants HAL anyway? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny
      Bender's quite useful.

      I want my insane bot!

    2. Re:Who wants HAL anyway? by danny256 · · Score: 2, Funny

      The articles isn't talking about the insane aspect of HAL, I think is talking about the speech interface aspect. I could be wrong though.

    3. Re:Who wants HAL anyway? by ObviousGuy · · Score: 4, Funny

      Speech is a natural way of interfacing with a control system. "Illuminate"

      It's particularly bad for games. "Click both buttons on the unopened square next to the '3'"

      --
      I have been pwned because my /. password was too easy to guess.
  3. Well, duh by yoyoyo · · Score: 2, Funny
    basically, is that it's hard to speak and think at the same time

    This explains drivers in So Cal. Those cellphones are using up all their available neurons. Not that they had that many free to begin with.

    --

    --

    --
    I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me - Churchill
  4. Re:All great Sci-Fi ideas come to pass eventually by Iamthefallen · · Score: 5, Funny
    All great Sci-Fi ideas come to pass eventually

    If brightly coloured spandex clothes ever become commonplace I'm quitting this planet...

    --
    Wax-Museum Fire Results In Hundreds Of New Danny DeVito Statues
  5. What about typing and thinking? by FleshWound · · Score: 5, Funny
    From the article:
    What that means, basically, is that it's hard to speak and think at the same time.
    With the advent of the Internet and global communications, I think it's become painfully evident that a majority of the people also have trouble typing and thinking at the same time. =)
  6. Nonsense! by Greyfox · · Score: 5, Funny
    Why, 50 years ago many people said that flying cars would never exist and now, 50 years later... um...

    Nevermind...

    Actually in the future the computer will scan your face and biological status and read your mind based on millions of tiny clues. All you'll have to do is sit there with a vague disinterested loook on your face and the computer will magically do stuff based on all those clues. Later on you won't even have to be at the computer. To write that 10,000 lines of code you need by next thursday, you'd just go out and take a walk (Is anyone buying this? No? Ok, I'll stop now...)

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

    1. Re:Nonsense! by Vermithrax · · Score: 2, Funny

      Maybe they've brought speaking computers closer by providing those quotes that will look stupid in history. The computer could never have been a success till someone at IBM came up with the 'The world will never need more than six' quote. Likewise the train could never have succeeded without the man who said that you couldn't travel above 15 MPH because the air would be forced out of your lungs and you would suffocate.

      So remember when you next run into a talking robot that it just can't happen

  7. Re:Finally... by aengblom · · Score: 3, Funny

    You're Uncle was a Senator. I'm quite postive he wasn't doing much thinking.

    ;-)

    --


    So close and yet so far from the world's perfect ID number
  8. Re:All great Sci-Fi ideas come to pass eventually by Metrol · · Score: 3, Funny

    If brightly coloured spandex clothes ever become commonplace I'm quitting this planet...

    Man, you totally missed out on the 80's didn't you?

    --
    The line must be drawn here. This far. No further.
  9. Re:Single Modality? by main() · · Score: 2, Funny

    > There are plenty of times I'm using the computer when
    > I'd rather speak to it than move my eyes or my hands.

    nudge nudge, wink wink... me too 8-)

    Si

  10. Re:Single Modality? by thomas.galvin · · Score: 2, Funny

    There are plenty of times I'm using the computer when I'd rather speak to it than move my eyes or my hands.

    I can't tell you how much I wish I could get WIndows to ctrl-alt-del whatever app I was running when I shout "son of a bitch!"

    --
    Thomas Galvin