Sentient Data Access

CowboyRobot writes "From Queue comes a piece subtitled Why doesn't your data know more about you? From the article: 'It has been more than ten years since such information appliances as ATMs and grocery store UPC checkout counters were introduced. ... A common language for these devices has not been standardized, nor have current database solutions sufficiently captured the complexities involved in correctly expressing multifaceted data. ... As computing devices expand from the status-quo keyboard and desktop to a variety of form factors and scales, we can imagine workplaces configured to have a society of devices, each designed for a very specific task. As a whole, the collection of devices may act much like a workshop in the physical world, where the data moves among the specialized digital stations. For our society of devices to operate seamlessly, a mechanism will be required to (a) transport data between devices and (b) have it appear at each workstation, or tool, in the appropriate representation.'"

Comments

Get on the boat

[ObviousGuy]

It's called Universal Plug and Play and despite appearances it is gaining popularity.

Re:perhaps a good thing?

[Anonymous Coward]

if every ATM in the country had the same architecture

A lot of them are standardizing on Windows.

Have A Nice Day!

More than 10 years?

[dcw3]

"It has been more than ten years since such information appliances as ATMs and grocery store UPC checkout counters were introduced"

Try 30+ years for UPC. They came about back around 72 at Krogers in Ohio. And ATMs...at least 20+ years, but that Google is left as an exercise to the reader.

Umbrella terms for this type of tech

[rwa2]

It's under development under a couple of different names.

Unfortunately, this kind of thing still starts in the military world. The DoD has been developing requirements for Network Centric Warfare (NCW). Basically turning warfare interfaces into a RTS game like StarCraft, C&C, complete with fog-of-war, semi-autonomous units, comm & data sharing, etc. On the technical side, this is manifesting itself as Command, Control, Communications, Computer, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) architecture. One of the first actual implementations is being worked in in the form of Future Combat Systems (FCS).

These are complex systems, so the DoD has been maturing development of modeling & simulation interoperability by making contractors adhere to High Level Architecture (HLA) so they can properly analyze these systems before deploying them. HLA basically provides a lot of the same data object registration, distribution, and interfaces that older tech like CORBA does, with extra simulation concepts.

These technologies are being commercialized under the buzzwords "Nework Centric Operations" (NCO) and "Network Enabled Operations" (NEO). Advocates usually point to well networked operations like Wal-mart, UPS, et al. as poster children for what could be done (automatic restocking, package tracking, load balancing & route optimization, etc.) with enough NEO infrastructure. A lot of the interchange standards (including C4ISR) are getting established through bodies like the OMG. Other than the interchange standards, there's not all that much new tech involved... maybe RFIDs and various other networking tech (grid/mesh networks, strong encryption/authentication, mobile IP, etc.). Most if it just involves looking at technology that already exists and figuring out how to piece it together to actually do something worthwhile.

Disclaimer: I work for one of the gov't contractors throwing all these buzzwords around.

Re:Umbrella terms for this type of tech

[dustmite]

No, you're wrong about HLA. Firstly, HLA provides NO SIMULATION CONCEPTS at all, as it is designed in a generic way that contains no concepts of simulations at all. Secondly, HLA does a helluva lot LESS than CORBA, HLA does not even provide a system for distributed computing or calling remote procedures. All HLA does is provide a standardized way of describing the data framework for networked applications - in other words, a standardized way of describing what the content of network packets will be. There is no RPC mechanism at all. There is a mechanism for passing ownership of HLA objects between federates, but that is all.

HLA does not even standardize the communications interface, that is left up to users.

There is NOTHING NEW in HLA, no new technology, no new concepts. It is ONLY a way of standardizing the content of network packets, so that people developing simulators that must interact with one another have a standard way of letting one another know what information they will receive on the network and have to send, etc. Basically HLA lets you specify what is the equivalent of an XML DTD - a document containing a hierarchical description of what packets will be sent. That is all. Basically HLA gives you a document describing your network protocol, and a standardized API for connecting to HLA 'federations'. Nothing else. It is even left up to you to figure out how to send that data to other computers (or you can license 3rd party APIs).

Sorry, but hearing buzzwords get thrown around doesn't mean you understand them.

Project Oxygen @ MIT

[G4from128k]

Project Oxygen is much closer to achieving the article's goals, at least in terms of cutsy demos(see the video clips at the preceding link). The Oxygen project's goals are a bit different from the article author's goals. Oxygen is more concerned with consumer/business office environments than the article's emphasis on an automotive designer's needs.

Re:What a poor pretentious article

[heironymouscoward]

Moderators, mod parent UP!

Oh, already "5 Interesting".

Thanks for showing that Slashdot can be a force for sanity. This kind of bullshit pseudoscience drives me up the wall.

But look a little deeper at the article and you will see that the initial superficiality in fact hides a deeper and much more stunning superficiality.

Some of the background inventions are truly stunning. The "Removable Media Metaphor" lets you carry data from one place to another on, wait for it, physical objects. This is incredible. They have actually re-invented the diskette or memory card and propose to use it for printing documents!!

Then the i-Land project (which is something about building "computationally enabled furniture with large displays") has a concept called "Passengers" (not sure if this is a metaphor or a simile) that - wait for it - describes physical objects that carry data between the smartchairs and smartTVsofas in question. Again, the diskette!! Someone has been sharing notes, I expect. Please, someone tell them about TCP/IP, WiFi or Bluetooth?!

Then there is the "Pick and Drop Metaphor" (aha, another metaphor, but a metaphor for what exactly?), in which one "picks" (clever, huh!) data and "drops" it onto physical objects that carry etc. yada yada yada. Clearly one cannot do all this with the traditional file manager with its simplistic drag and drop to diskette or removable memory card.

Finally, "ParcTabs", which is like a mouse combined with PDA. Clever idea that. But, I wonder, why are the ParcTabs not also acting as Passengers, using the implementation-defined behaviour of the "Removable Media Metaphor?" I believe the authors owe us an answer to such vital questions.

Yes, another great year for those research grants!! What I ask is, if these so-called "computer scientists" (and I use this term metaphorically) had to actually work for their money, instead of talking their way to it, how long would they last?

Slashdot instant poll:

(_) Five minutes before their jobs are outsourced
(_) Two days before they get the can
(_) One month before their company goes bankrupt
(_) Intellectuals aren't supposed to work for a living, you insensitive bastard!

As usual...

[voodoo1man]

John McCarthy came up with the same idea (and invented a better XML before anyone had even heard of SGML) 30 years ago.