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Extroverted computing at your service

Michael Kanellos CNET News

Published: 04 Aug 2003 16:39 BST

The 60s and 70s were the decades of the mainframe. The 80s made up the decade of client-server computing. The 90s were the Internet years. Now we're entering the decade of the electronic butler.

Instead of developing computers that we can use to solve complex problems, researchers are dedicating themselves to the task of inventing machines that will solve problems for us. The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (Darpa), for instance, is holding a contest called the Darpa Grand Challenge.

For this contest, inventors will try to develop fully automated, off-road robot cars that can make it from Los Angeles to Las Vegas in 10 hours -- or about the same time it takes a Greyhound bus full of gambling senior citizens to make the trip. Instead of two rolls of nickels and a pass to a buffet, the winners will receive $1m (£0.62m).

Automation is also on the minds of researchers at Siggraph, the annual computer graphics conference held by the Association for Computing Machinery, which takes place this week in San Diego.

A consortium of European universities is working on the Smart-Its Project, which aims to develop sensors for everyday objects to assist people in daily life. One application would sense how many things are on a table or a shelf and what those things weigh. Another would integrate intelligence into build-it-yourself bookcases so that they could warn owners when they are running awry of the instructions.

The sensor technology is being developed in universities in Finland, England, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden, but the furniture itself is available now.

"We bought it at Ikea," said Gerd Kortuem of the University of Lancaster. "It is about turning existing artifacts and actuating them."

Another group, stationed at New York University, showed off a prototype of a decorating application at Siggraph. It is designed to arrange the various pieces of furniture in a room at the touch of a button, using a complex network of light-emitting diodes, motors and position-detectors mounted on the pieces. (Right now, it's a model: The furniture is only a couple of inches high, but Siggraph crowds oohed and aahed.)