Living things beat computers by a nose -- and ears, fingertips, and other sense organs. Compared with people and animals, our computers, tablets, and smartphones are blind, deaf, and unable to touch, smell, or taste. But that'll change in the next five years, according to end-of-year predictions from IBM.
Computers will gain the capacity to use the five senses over the next half decade, according to IBM's annual 5 in 5 predictions.
Come on, now touch me, babe. Infrared and haptic technologies will enable a smartphone's touchscreen and vibration capabilities to simulate the physical sensation of touching something, according to IBM. This will allow online merchants to give shoppers the sensation of touching merchandise, such as Egyptian cotton sheets. Farmers would be able to touch crops remotely to examine their health, and the same goes for doctors examining patients.
My eyes adored you. Vision recognition systems will get better, with applications in industries such as healthcare, retail, and agriculture. For example, computers could spot a tiny area of diseased tissue in an MRI and apply it to a patient's medical history for faster and more accurate diagnosis and treatment. Computers might detect skin cancer based on visible symptoms. From a business perspective, marketing automation systems would be able to learn about consumer preferences by looking at the images people like and share on Facebook, Pinterest, and other social networks.
A taste sweeter than wine. Artificial taste would enable computers to analyze food based on how the chemical compounds interact with each other. Computers would be able to devise perfect meals for each person using algorithms taking into account favorite flavors and optimal nutrition. These meals would help combat obesity and malnutrition.
The beating of our hearts is the only sound. Computer hearing would look for sound patterns and frequency changes to predict weakness in a bridge before it buckles, decode the meaning of a baby's crying, or hear a tree fall in the forest (whether or not there's anyone there -- so much for the old philosophical riddle).
Can't you smell that smell? Artificial smell would detect chemicals and molecules in breath that affect a person's health, troubleshoot hospital hygiene, detect soil conditions, and look for flaws in a city's sanitation or sewage system before the human nose detects a problem.
Here's a quick video overview of the predictions.
For more videos and more details on the predictions, visit IBM: The 5 in 5.
IBM has been doing these 5 in 5 predictions for a few years. For a look at past predictions, visit the archive: IBM: Past 5 in 5s.
Okay, but "they'll use sensors" is handwaving. How do sensors detect taste or smell? I know how they detect light and sound, and even pressure for tactile, but I don't know how they detect taste or smell.
I'm not going near the porn comment! But, regarding taste and smell, it's my (non-engineer) understanding that computers will use sensors; I'd guess they'll be backed by AI/big-data that can super-quickly crunch through everything to discern "onion," "Chanel No. 5," or "wet dog" for smell or "chocolate chip cookie," "arsenic," or "kale" for taste.
slfisher - How can a computer sense smell or taste? Through molecular sensors, some of which are already avaialble, for example testing air pollution.
I've always been skeptical of the common belief that pornography is a leading driver of new technology. I've seen precious little evidence to support the claim, while it's been asserted many time.
Whatever can be done to advance our interaction with through the use of our devices would be generally welcome. We wait to see how realistic some of these efforts will be.
Do we have any of that program codes available yet? I suppose that will be the next hot topic. It will be fun to learn how to program a computerized smell or taste.
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Neal Stephenson is best known as the author of science fiction novels such as SnowCrash and Anathem. But he does other things as well. Among them: He's assembled a team of scientists and engineers to figure out how to build a 20-kilometer-tall tower to use as a platform for launching rockets into space.
While interstellar travel presents huge challenges, it's "almost inevitable," according to a speaker at the Starship Century symposium here in San Diego.
Catch up on the week with one simple serving of Friday File. We've pieced together 10 interesting news bites you may have missed and put them together in bite-size morsels.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
New tools like laptops, tablets, smartphone, and wireless connectivity let us work from San Diego to Katmandu, and anywhere in between. But time management remains a problem.
Businesses helped neighbors with Internet access and mobile device charge-ups during Sandra. Following that example, enterprises should consider preparing Internet disaster plans to help the public during disasters.
Healthcare IT faces an array of challenges and changes in the next three to five years, says the CIO of The Ottawa Hospital. Mobility will play a role in healthcare in a big way.
As smartphones and tablets forge into the mainstream, vendors can begin work on the next big wave: wearable devices. Apple and Google are two of the heavyweights reportedly investing time, effort, and money here. This broad category spans the range from devices that can be worn like watches to computers integrated with people's clothing.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Subsidized handsets, rather than locked handsets, should be the focus of regulators. We're not getting good deals, not fostering innovation, and weakening our power as buyers.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
Ushering in a new era of cognitive computing systems, IBM announced today the IBM Watson Engagement Advisor, a technology breakthrough that allows brands to crunch big data in record time to transform the way they engage clients in key functions such as customer service, marketing, and sales.
Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
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M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
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