Microsoft
has been doing research since 2007 to find another prospective workshop for the
evolution of Human-Machine Interfaces (HMI). They recently published an
impressive document on what these interfaces will be like in the year 2020. The
report concludes that by 2020, speech and gestures will play a crucial role in
our relationship with machines. Nerve impulses will begin to be used to control
computers, especially for the disabled. The report also predicts that
ubiquitous connectivity will enable systems to act as substitutes for human
memory, and when will be combined with the increased processing power; we will
begin to supplement human reasoning. Traceability of our movements and actions
will cease to accelerate and instead will expand, raising serious issues of
confidentiality. In the medical field, the boundary between the human and the
computer, via implanted medical devices, will begin to fade.
Incorporating
human hopes and goals
An
important consequence of the work done by Microsoft is to show that research on
new technologies will mobilize knowledge that will go beyond the mere computer.
The hopes and goals of the people must be incorporated into the process of
technology development, and early on, because it makes a big difference in what
technologies eventually become.
Ubiquitous
computing
By
2020, according to the report, we should move from computer to mobile
ubiquitous computing: each of us has access to thousands of computers. Our
activities will be continuously recorded, and will be constantly available.
Despite their very techno-centric side, the Microsoft experts are never the
less critical, on machines they imagine will exist in the future.
The
design process
The
authors of the study, exhorted to add a fifth step in the design process. The
current design process goes in four main stages: research, design, build,
evaluate and understand. Future design processes will have to install a fifth
step known as “human values.” At a time when data is expected to be permanently
stored and shared, designers should take into account human values such as
privacy, security, morality, ethics, etc.
The
relationship between humans and machines
Referring
to GPS navigation systems, the authors note that if people are willing to obey
the instructions given by stupidly simple computers, we should worry even more
about the relationship between humans and machines, especially if computers are
to become more frequent, more complex. People have driven into rivers because their
GPS navigation system told them to. How much danger are people going to be in
when there are blindly obeying advice from their dialysis machine or cooker?
Where
now?
Apart
from the research that Microsoft has done in order to find out how computers will
be in the future, they have also taken steps to get us there a little quicker.
One of the devices they have designed is the "Holoflector". This is a
screen mirror that reflects your image onto an overlay as another image
generated by an LED screen behind the mirror. The second image is generated by
a Kinect sensor, which enables the image to appear 3D (making it look like a
hologram).
The
Microsoft Translator Hub
This
is a machine-translation system that is customized for each linguistic
community, especially those whose first language is considered to be
endangered. It is ideal for current languages translation, and supports
language that other software does not support. There are approximately 7,000
languages spoken around the world, and UNESCO believes that 50% of these
languages are endangered. Languages that disappear are those that contain
rare or unique linguistic phenomena. An example is the Aboriginal languages of
Australia, the Berber languages of North Africa, or Breton in France, the
Burgundian or Picard.
Author’s bio:
My name is Sonia Jackson. I represent the UK web-site http://www.royal-essays.com.
We’ll help you to solve all problems with writing different essays and research
papers according to the rules in the UK.
Posts
