Pervasive Computing

Chris Gulker reports for NetFM
December 7, 2000

Pervasive computing describes what many observers believe is the next big technological step, wherein computers will stop being large boxes that people go to, and will become very small devices that go with people. Modern PDAs and Web-enabled cell phones are among the first of these devices. There is also a trend to build computers and Internet connectivity into appliances - everything from microwaves to stereos.

Some of these devices will be wearable as clothing or common accessories. Two that I think will be early contenders are ear-stud phones and computers built into glasses - both prescription and sunglasses.

Smaller than the ear device used by Lt. Uhura in the original Star Trek, the ear stud, which I understand is being studied at Orange's Imaginarium among other places, is more than a phone: it's an audio interface to a computer that's meant to be worn at all times. It's very small and light, rather like a clip-on earring or ear band, and it works via bone induction - meaning you can hear it and can hear you, even in noisy environments.

It will wake you up in the morning - remembering not to wake you on days off - and remind you of upcoming meetings and other scheduled events. It will understand commands like 'Get me today's headlines and the opening price of my stocks' via voice recognition software. It will be able to go to Web sites and read them to you, and retrieve and read you your email, which you can then dictate replies to.

Of course it will screen your calls, put selected ones through and dump the rest in voice mail. With its built in GPS, it will know where you are and be able to prompt you with information like 'there's a great blues CD store two blocks ahead on the right. They're having a sale on the B.B. King CD you've been reading about'. The stud will provide an audio overlay on your real-world experience.

In like fashion, spectacle computers will overlay your visual field with information, including information about your environment. The concept is a bit like the heads up displays used in some modern aircraft and automobiles that project information like altitude and speed directly onto the windshield, so the pilot or driver can keep the path ahead in view. The spectacles will likely use OLED display technology - OLED is a thin, flexible, transparent LED screen that is already being used in some cell phones and high-end auto stereos.

Theses computers, again using GPS and a wireless Net connection to databases, will project information of your choosing onto your immediate environment. For example, if you're traveling, and visiting a city for the first time, it might project directions and maps, as well as overlay historical data onto famous buildings and sites. If you were driving, it could alert you when to turn to get to your destination, and even alert you to available parking places. Of course, you'll be able to read email and faxes, and surf the Web, hopefully not while you're driving or negotiating Alpine cliffs.

Both of these devices will continue a trend in the last 20 years or so for people to be comfortable living closely with small machines - witness the number of people you see daily in big cities on their way to work with CD or MP3 players or cell phone headsets. These devices go a step further by merging the real and cyber worlds continuously and interactively, and may presage people choosing to actually build small machines into their bodies.

In fact, you could conceivably program your spectacles to put new 'skins' on buildings and walls and streets, sort of like you can on MP3 player software. If you want Big Ben in orange polka dots, no problem. The user interface for these devices may involve a series of menus that you activate merely by looking at them - the glasses follow your gaze and 'know' what you're looking at.

How long before you can actually go out and buy one? My guess is 3 years or less. The devices themselves have already been demonstrated in one form or another at places like MIT's Media Lab. What's missing is ubiquitous, inexpensive, wireless bandwidth and supporting infrastructure that will connect the right database at the right moment, but dozens of companies are working on this even as we speak.

This page was last built with Frontier on a Macintosh on Wed, Dec 6, 2000 at 6:30:16 PM.