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Is The World Shifting To 'Ambient Computing'? (computerworld.com)
In the future, "A massive convergence of technologies will enable us to use computers and the internet without really using them," argues Computerworld.
At the dawn of the personal computing revolution, people "operated" a computer. They sat down and did computing -- often programming. Later, with the application explosion, operators became "users." People used computers for purposes other than programming or operating a computer -- like balancing their checkbooks or playing video games. All computing uses so far have required a cognitive shift from doing something in the real world to operating or using a computer. Ambient computing changes all that, because it involves using a computer without consciously or deliberately or explicitly "using" a computer....
It's just there, guiding and nudging you along as you accomplish things in life. Ambient computing devices will operate invisibly in the background. They'll identify, monitor and listen to us and respond to our perceived needs and habits. So a good working definition of ambient computing is "computing that happens in the background without the active participation of the user...."
In 20 years, the idea of picking up a device or sitting down at a computer to actively use it will seem quaintly antiquated. All computing will be ambient -- all around us all the time, whispering in our ear, augmenting the real world through our prescription eyeglasses and car windshields, perceiving our emotions and desires and taking action in the background to help us reach our business goals and live a better life. Between now and then we'll all ride together on a very interesting journey from computers we actively use to computing resources increasingly acting in the background for us.
Though the article identifies smart speakers are the first ambient computing devices most people will encounter, it's argues that that's just the beginning of a much larger change.
"We're also going to be flooded and overwhelmed by the 'ambient computing' hype as, I predict, it will become one of the most overused and abused marketing buzzwords ever."
It's just there, guiding and nudging you along as you accomplish things in life. Ambient computing devices will operate invisibly in the background. They'll identify, monitor and listen to us and respond to our perceived needs and habits. So a good working definition of ambient computing is "computing that happens in the background without the active participation of the user...."
In 20 years, the idea of picking up a device or sitting down at a computer to actively use it will seem quaintly antiquated. All computing will be ambient -- all around us all the time, whispering in our ear, augmenting the real world through our prescription eyeglasses and car windshields, perceiving our emotions and desires and taking action in the background to help us reach our business goals and live a better life. Between now and then we'll all ride together on a very interesting journey from computers we actively use to computing resources increasingly acting in the background for us.
Though the article identifies smart speakers are the first ambient computing devices most people will encounter, it's argues that that's just the beginning of a much larger change.
"We're also going to be flooded and overwhelmed by the 'ambient computing' hype as, I predict, it will become one of the most overused and abused marketing buzzwords ever."
Computers already exist in most everything, people just don't think of MCUs as computers but they have everything needed for computing. Cars, monitors, anything that's bluetooth, old 90s cell phones, your fitbit, anything that is USB, traffic signal controllers, digital cameras and just about everything that needs electricity have computers in them. Your credit cards are even computers. You can say that's a low bar but they all computer fast enough to leave the old mainframes in the dust.
Just because your computer has "one job" doesn't make it less of a computer, it just means you are unaware that you are surrounded by computers and what you think of as a computer is a macrocomputer.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
When AI is that good, there will be no reason for a human to be assigned the task to begin with. This means there will be no reason for any humans to be employed; AI would already be better at everything humans are capable of doing.
The humans will be too busy looking for a way to survive, while the robots seek ever more exploitative means of amassing wealth, as they were programmed to do.
Don't worry, I am sure the 1% that own them will be understanding how the 99% are starving to death, as they sip their pumpkin spice latte, and review the surveillance data from all the smart cams, smart speakers, and other misc. telescreens keeping tabs on all the 99% so that they cannot effectively organize with pitchforks before the automated robot peace keepers arrive. I am sure that future will be grand and dandy indeed. A true dream. I mean, who WOULDNT want to live that dream? /s
"Keyboard and mouse are primitive. Voice, slightly less primitive"
Actually the keyboard and mouse are extremely good for the tasks they were designed for. Try saying "int main left round bracket int A-R-G-C comma char star star A-R-G-V right round bracket left curly bracket..."
etc faster than I can type the equivalent.
Similarly good luck using photoscope going "ok, do a transform from that point there, no left a bit, no right a bit, no there, THERE! , yes thats it, now drag that down from 10 pixels back ... no TEN, oh FFS, wheres my mouse..."
Article poorly defines nevertheless real class of computers that did come to prominence.
Follow the examples, not how author poorly defines the area of these examples in words.
The key word is interaction, not the fact that computers operate in the background without people knowing it.
Fitbit in your list is the only relevant example.
What author talks about is about UI. Where UI is something that you control less and less with your conscience, and more and more by something that you can't control with your brain.
fitbit monitors your pulse and pressure and computes based on that UI. Alexa monitors your spontaneous desires to buy things during advertising seasons. Almost. You still have to add "Alexa" because lawsuits.
One of non-Tesla American car manufacturers monitors your pupil activity to detect if you are fully aware of driving while using modern car assist technologies that do not require your driving input for quite long periods of time now.
Tesla uses the touch of your hand for the same purpose, but it's the same thing.
Soon the computers will detect you shivering and warm you up with a whiff of a warm air from nearby air duct nozzle. Or detect your body head via infrared monitors and cool you off with a whiff of a gentle San Diego night breeze.
There are plenty of independent driving factors that will help these sort of technologies take larger and larger share of the market:
- aging population that (a) can't catch up with modern computing (b) loses sanity
- necessity to know and exploit what consumer _really_ feels about things to personalize the marketing
These two giant factors are pretty solid.
Besides, we have already invented all these devices zillion times over in our Sci-Fi literature. This sort of computing have been a collective dream of humanity for a long time now.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
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