Computing
DEVELOPMENTS TO WATCH
1. IN-VEHICLE COMPUTING AND CONNECTIVITY
One of the biggest trends in auto manufacturing over the next few years will be bringing numerous computing capabilities inside the vehicle. Wireless Internet access, touchscreen and speech-directed functions, GPS navigation, and many other applications will surface.
2. VOICE USER INTERFACES FOR HAND-HELD DEVICES
An annoying aspect of most hand-held devices is their limited input methods. It would be nice just to talk to the device and get information. Leading speech- and language-technology specialist Lernout & Hauspie has demonstrated a hand-held device with continuous speech recognition and a large vocabulary. It understands commands, reads e-mails, and can make wireless Web connections.
3. CONTEXT-AWARE WEARABLE COMPUTERS
For years, we've seen a variety of wearable computers--like the pen-based systems of overnight-delivery personnel, and PDAs and MP3 players attached to our belts. We'll soon see systems from major vendors addressing this idea. IBM, for instance, has a prototype IBM WearablePC. The next step is personal area networks (PANs) and context-aware wearable computers that not only blend with attire as unobtrusively as possible but also interact with your environment or workplace intelligently.
4. IMMERSIVE COMPUTING AND VIDEO AS INPUT
We may soon be using video as input (VAI) to interact physically with our personal computers for entertainment and business applications. Companies like Reality Fusion are creating systems that capture the user's movements via video camera input to control key aspects of the software.
5. INTERACTIVE TV AND HDTV
We'll soon see most new television sets Internet-enabled. Numerous set-top boxes will be deployed in the next few years to provide Internet access and to support enhanced interactive programming. We're finally seeing interactive TV taking off, letting viewers interact directly with TV programming. Many companies, such as Microsoft and Oracle are moving rapidly toward providing interactive TV services and infrastructure.
