It's good to know that even the high priests of the computing community, such as MIT's Michael Dertouzos, are outraged by the appalling habits of today's personal computers. In his new book, The Unfinished Revolution: Human-Centered Computers and What They Can Do for Us (HarperCollins, New York, NY), Dertouzos rails against computers that crash frequently, bloated software that requires a 500-page manual, the agonizing waits for a machine to boot up or switch off, and so on. We've all been there and done that.
Dertouzos, director of the renowned Laboratory for Computer Science at MIT, says it's time for a radical change. "We must set a new goal which is as obvious and simple as it is powerful: Information technology should help people do more by doing less," says Dertouzos. He calls the approach that leads to this goal "human-centric computing." Dertouzos draws an analogy with the motors that are used in many devices, from refrigerators to pencil sharpeners. Motors are so well-integrated into a myriad of devices that we scarcely give them a second thought. So it should be with computer technology, says Dertouzos.
The first thing we should do is integrate computers into our lives and not accept the other way around. As users, the question we should ask is how much more we can achieve with a given application compared with what we are doing now. When computers "vanish" as motors did earlier, we'll know the Information Revolution has finished, claims Dertouzos.
The second step is to raise the level of controls we use to interact with our systems from their current, low, machine level to the higher human level where we operate. We need the equivalent of the automobile's steering wheel, brakes and gas pedal with a simple set of commands that work for all applications. New technologies such as voice recognition and machine vision can improve ease-of-use and boost productivity.
The third step needed to make computers more human-centered is to reach more people, suggests Dertouzos. Although there are some 300 million people with Internet access, this represents only five percent of the world's population. Left to its own devices, the Information Revolution will benefit affluent nations far more than impoverished countries and, thus, will further increase the gap between rich and poor.
Speech and vision are key
The two technologies that will contribute the most to human-centered computing are speech recognition and vision systems, claims Dertouzos. Already, speech recognition systems are sufficiently advanced for routine everyday use. One of the Laser Focus World editors, Hassaun Jones-Bey, uses a speech recognition program for most of his editing and writing. Vision systems, however, have a long way to go to match the equivalent capabilities of speech recognition. Typically, vision systems are used in narrow contexts, such as recognizing components for placement on a printed-circuit board. But improvements, such as cheap three-dimensional displays, are likely to arrive by leaps and bounds. "Speech and vision will remain the queen technologies of human-centric interaction among people and machines," says Dertouzos.
In his laboratory at MIT, Dertouzos is attempting to put together a human-centered system called "Oxygen." This five-year project, started in September 1999, aims to use existing technology to achieve human-centric computing. The basic Oxygen software will be made freely available without restrictions to anyone after a "final prototype" is completed sometime around 2004. MIT has a number of industry partners, in the form of the Oxygen Alliance, that are providing financial support in return for access to the project's developments.
Will Oxygen have other, less tangible benefits? In closing the book, Dertouzos asks, "What might human-centric computing do to our rational, utilitarian selves?" The easy answers are that people will be able to do more work, to have faster access to the world's products and services, and will have much more access to education and entertainment via computer networks. Dertouzos attempts to answer the question in terms of enhancements to our humanity. This is a much more difficult question since definitions of human betterment are subject to individual needs. Human-centric computing will undoubtedly benefit the rational part of humanity but it seems to me that it's unlikely to enhance the spiritual dimension of our humanity. Perhaps that's too much to expect of technology.
Jeffrey Bairstow | Contributing Editor
Jeffrey Bairstow is a Contributing Editor for Laser Focus World; he previously served as Group Editorial Director.