A Vision of Computing From Microsoft's Future Thinker

The way people interact with computers will wildly change

Over the next 10 years, how people interact with computers will evolve drastically, with hand gesture controls becoming as common as keyboards, and file selection being determined by eye scans instead of mouse movements, predicts Microsoft chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie.

"Today, most people's interaction is through a screen--whether they touch it, type it, point or click, it's still just graphical user interface. While that's very powerful and has a lot of applicability, I think it will be supplemented in dramatic ways by what we call a natural user interface. Computers will soon be able to emulate the human senses of sight, hearing, speech, touch, and gesture, and combine them in multiple ways for people to interact with machines. The interactivity revolution will be fueled by new multiprocessor computers, which are expected to be widely available by 2012." He said.

Mundie says these new processors should provide a major performance gain, with some performances increasing by a factor of 100. One of the first major commercial applications of the new interface technology is expected to be released next year when Microsoft launches its new line of Xbox gaming consoles, which will completely eliminate the need for handheld controllers. The new gaming interface enables players to move and use gesture controls, with the system calculating in real time the angular position of the 22 major joints in the body.

Mundie envisions a day when users will simply be able to talk to their computers about solving problems. You should be able to describe the problem or the policy you want and the computer should be able to somehow implement that. Interesting.

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By 2040 You Will Be Able to Upload Your Brain...

"a person's entire personality, memory, skills and history", by the end of the 2030s

Inventor and visionary Ray Kurzweil has drawn admiration and scorn in equal measure for his prediction of imminent revolutionary innovations such as the overtaking of human intelligence by artificial intelligence, three-dimensional printers that can fabricate physical objects from a data file and cheap input materials, and an indefinite lifespan free of senescence.

He anticipates that it will be possible to upload the human brain from a computer by the end of the 2030s, while human intelligence will evolve through technological enhancement to the point where it will start to expand outward to the universe in the 2040s. Kurzweil is the author of a book, The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, in which he envisions a singularity, or what he calls "a future period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed."

The singularity hinges on the exponential rate at which technology is advancing, according to Kurzweil. He is a director of the nonprofit Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, which is touted as "the only organization that exists for the expressed purpose of achieving the potential of smarter-than-human intelligence safer and sooner."

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Pedestrian crossings could be monitored

Intelligent surveillance system able to detect aberrant behaviour by drivers and people

A surveillance system for monitoring whether cars and pedestrians are acting normally at crosswalks has been developed by researchers at Spain's University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM). "We have developed an intelligence surveillance software and related theoretical model in order to define 'normality' in any setting one wishes to monitor, such as a traffic scenario," says UCLM's David Vallejo.

Normal behavior is defined as moving when lights are green, and stopping and not crossing safety lines when they are red. The artificial intelligence system makes use of software agents to monitor pedestrian crossings. The team developed the monitoring tool to determine the effectiveness of its model. "In this way we are able to identify any drivers and pedestrians behaving abnormally, meaning the program could be used in order to penalize such behaviors," Vallejo says.

The researchers say the intelligent surveillance system also could be used to analyze behavior indoors, such as at museums, or to detect overcrowding.

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Accident Ahead? New Software Will Enable Cars To warn Drivers?

'Intelligent Car' Able to Learn From Owner's Driving and Warn in Case of Accident Hazard

Scientists from six European countries have designed a new automatic driving assistance program called DRIVSCO. The program studies the car owner's driving pattern over time and if the car moves unusually when approaching a curve, intersection, person, or other vehicle at night, DRIVSCO issues a warning alarm. DRIVSCO, which features a night vision system, assumes that a night-time driver cannot see the road well due to poor lighting and the limited range of low beams. According to the European Union Car Council, 42 percent of car accidents occur at night. DRIVSCO project leaders say that cars installed with night vision and a sophisticated driving assistance system will reduce the number of night-time accidents on the road. Initial tests of the system were successful.

The DRIVSCO system features an electronic chip with artificial vision developed by University of Grenada researchers. The chip's system interprets images' outlines, depth, and movement. Because its hardware is reconfigurable, the chip could be used for other types of cars as well as other applications.

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