Items such as stereos and lights will be controlled in similar fashions. Many household items, such as lights, will not have to be controlled, but will be automatically adjusted. Each person will either carry a card on their person or will be detected by sensors. The main household computer will then identify that person and access their preferences. Lighting, music, pictures on the wall and temperature will be adjusted accordingly. If information is not available on the person, a standard set of preferences will be loaded and a new profile will be created.
Profiles and appliances will be controlled through displays throughout the home. We will no longer have to control devices from different places in the house. These displays will be central to controlling the home environment of the future. Further information on topics discussed is found in the developments section under flat panel displays, complete systems on a chip, and computer controlled appliances.
Chip technology
Fred Regnier
Professor, chemistry
(765) 494-3878
E-mail: [email protected]
Has developed a way to take specialized instruments from the chemistry lab and shrink them one thousand to one million times and put them on a computer chip. The miniature laboratories can separate mixtures into pure chemical components. The unique design will allow scientists to pack dozens or hundreds of "laboratories" on a single silicon chip, reducing the cost and boosting the efficiency of many chemical and medical analyses. The laboratory chips, which should be available in three to five years, may allow physicians and medical professionals to perform chemical analyses that now must be done at specialized laboratories.
Jerry M. Woodall
Charles W. Harrison Distinguished Professor of Microelectronics
Director, NSF Center for Technology-Enabling Heterostructure Materials
(765) 494-0732
E-mail: [email protected]
Research focuses on developing new types of compound semiconductors, which are used widely in a variety of consumer electronics. Is former research staff member and fellow of the IBM Watson Research Center. Expert in development and commercial applications of gallium arsenide technology. Has extensive experience with media. One of his many inventions is a high-efficiency solar cell used by NASA on space vehicles. Is member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Computers/manufacturing
Yuehwern Yih
Associate professor, production control and manufacturing
(765) 494-0826
E-mail: [email protected]
Research interests include using artificial intelligence to develop intelligent manufacturing systems, such as real-time production control and knowledge-based systems. Uses computers and neural networks to develop flexible manufacturing systems that "learn" to perform certain tasks efficiently, such as scheduling machines and delivering materials. Is a 1993 National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award recipient.
Nanotechnology
Ronald Andres
Professor, chemical engineering
(765) 494-4047
E-mail: [email protected]
Has created an ultrathin film -- made from tiny clusters of gold atoms -- that conducts electricity at room temperature by allowing electrons to "hop" one at a time from cluster to cluster. Electrical current passing through a device in this fashion would largely eliminate the problem of heat buildup in electronic devices, which currently rely on a continuous flow of current through silicon-based circuits. The new material may be used to develop ultrasmall components that could be used to build more powerful computers and miniaturized electrical devices, including those that could be inserted in the body.
Parallel processing
Henry (Hank) G. Dietz
Associate professor, electrical and computer engineering
(765) 494-3357
E-mail: [email protected]
Research interests include linking multiple personal computers to function as a high-performance, parallel processing supercomputer; computer architecture; computational linguistics; digital imaging; and real-time systems. Is chairman of the International Conference on Parallel Processing.
Rudolf Eigenmann
Assistant professor, electrical and computer engineering
(765) 494-1741
E-mail: [email protected]
Is an expert on high-performance, parallel processing computers. Has a National Science Foundation grant to pursue the next generation of supercomputers -- petaflop computers -- that would theoretically be capable of performing a quadrillion operations per second, one thousand times faster than today's fastest computers. Developed a compiler to automatically translate scientific and engineering computer programs into a form that can be run on a parallel processing machine, a process that increases the speed of the program.
Joseph F. Pekny
Associate professor, chemical engineering
(765) 494-7901
E-mail: [email protected]
Research interests include the application of high-performance parallel computers and supercomputers to complex chemical engineering problems, such as process design and management of process operations. Has developed computer algorithms that are used in chemical manufacturing facilities.
Speech recognition
Leah H. Jamieson
Professor, electrical engineering
Co-director, Engineering Projects in Community Service
(765) 494-3653
E-mail: [email protected]
Directs the Spoken Language Processing Group at Purdue, conducting research in the areas of speech recognition, integration of speech and natural language processing systems, recognition of spoken proper names, and speech coding. Research also addresses how the computer might select the correct meaning of an utterance. Co-edited books specializing in parallel computers (supercomputers) and the characteristics of parallel algorithms. Served as an associate editor for international journals on parallel and distributed computing, and speech and signal processing. Served on advisory committees of the National Science Foundation and the Army Research Office. Co-directs undergraduate engineering course in which students complete community service projects. Is co-chair of the Computing Research Association's Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research
Flat Panel Displays
Perhaps one of the biggest changes in the future won't be in what we are seeing on computer monitors, but in the monitors themselves. Monitors today can weigh up to 50 pounds, and take up a considerable amount of desk space. This is the area where the monitors of the future will amaze us. They will be inches thick and provide picture quality better than anything attainable now. Companies have already released liquid crystal displays (LCD) though the prices remain near one thousand dollars. LCD monitors do not require tubes, the main space taker in a CRT display. Instead LCD monitors work by passing a current through an electrically active substance. These new monitors are just inches thick.
Although the technology is here now, LCD monitors will not take off until after the year 2000. The prices today are too high, and the advantages aren't great enough. But once the prices lower, the average user will have access to flat panel displays. The entire computing experience will be redefined as monitors hang on the wall instead of sitting on a desk. It will be possible to put a monitor in the middle of a room, and put the computer itself somewhere else.
Even today, we can begin to see a glimpse of the monitors that come after LCD monitors. Companies have already begun testing monitors that would be millimeters thick. Cambridge Display Technology, a company based outside of Cambridge in England, is testing displays built with light-emitting polymers (LEPs). The company recently constructed a working tv screen that was only 2 millimeters thick. Unlike LCDs, these displays could be millimeters thick, and simply be attached to other items. This leads to endless possibilities, including displays that can be rolled up when not in use.
Regardless of the monitor technology that takes over, the monitors of the future will be smaller, and the picture quality will be better. And as the displays change, so will our whole concept of computing.
The Future of Computers Qoutes
* "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." --Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
* "Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." --Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949
* "I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year." --The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957
* "But what ... is it good for?" --Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
* "So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we' ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'" --Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer in 1976.
* "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." --Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
* "640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates, 1981
This Microcomputer System that Dell can, and has configured, and tested already, is just like a mainframe, in it's capability anyway, at a fraction of the cost of a mainframe. The time may well come when for the $19.95 a month you now pay for internet may buy you space on a computer, with disk space and programs. Who knows, you may even get internet service thrown in for the $19.95, make that $30.00 or $35.00. In any event, it will be a good deal, to say the least.
I worked a job in Denver where the data we were accessing was in Atlanta Georgia. This kind of thing is already being done in the business world, in large Corporations. So it's just a matter of High Speed Communications being available to everyone on the Internet.
There is the distinct possibility that we will all have access to Satellite Transmission of Data, at speed so high that it will seem like we are getting data from our computer's hard drive. It can be done, and I believe it will be done, in time.
Everyone on the internet would love to have high speed Internet data transmission, and have it now. But only business can afford it at this time. The cable modems are quickly changing things. For millions of people, high speed access is available now, over Cable Modems. Though many parts of the country have high speed cable modem access, there are still many parts of the United States were an internet user cannot get cable modem service. The reason this is so is: The Cable Systems must be upgraded in order for everyone to have Cable Modem Internet Access. This takes money and time. However, the time will come, but it is many years away, when we all can have high Internet data transmission rates over the Cable Lines that come in our homes. If you can get High Speed Cable Modem Access at this time, you are very lucky.
Also, the telephone switching stations, and the telephone lines will compete with Cable for Voice, Data, and Video. So there will be three types of high speed data transmission competing, and the price to consumers will be very low. The three methods will be: Cable Modems, Satellite, and Telephone Lines. Everyone will be able to afford super high speed Internet access at a price that is near negligible. However, this is years away, many years away.
AT&T has already Purchased TCI, the largest Cable Company to eventually offer Voice, Data, TV, High Speed Internet over the cable wires of TCI, in many major cities. Qwest has just purchased US West, the Telephone Company that is home based in Denver and serves many Western States. So both type of systems are going to compete for all communications services: Data Telephone, Television, High Speed Internet Service. The race to provide high speed communications is under way already.
A representative of Qwest said that in 7 years the race to provide this complete communications service will be over. I'm sure he is right. In 7 years we will all have high speed internet communications. Add a company which might use Satellite Dishes, and it will be complete.
I live in the Denver area. But I'm 7 Miles outside the City Limits. Though I have TCI Cable at my house, there are no cable lines from the City to where I live. There are many huge Satellite Dishes near my home where TCI is getting their Cable Signal for my area. So I'm not likely to ever have two way cable internet service at my house. One way maybe, but no two way.
There are telephone lines into my house. So, in time, after Qwest spends billions of dollars to upgrade the telephone system, I might finally have high speed internet service. I think it will be at least four years before it happens, that I get high speed internet service, and I'm frothing at the mouth to have high speed access. Well that is the way it goes. What can you do.
Do You want to hear the irony of the High Speed Modem situation? Many Small Communities already have Cable Modem Service Available. There are hundreds of thousands of people who live in the low population areas, but since most of the people don't have computers they naturally don't want high speed Cable Modem Internet Service. On the other hand, there are millions of people who live in high population areas, who have computers, and who would love to have Cable Modem Service, but they can't get it. Is that ironic or ironic.
We are now in the midst of a great technological revolution that was not envisioned a few years ago. And the High Tech Business has been caught with it's pants down. But they will pull up their pants as the years go by. Putting the infrastructure in place which will allow all that can be done, takes much time, and billions, hundreds of billions of Dollars.
The first month Bill Clinton was in the office of the Presidency, he set in motion getting the entire Library of Congress digitized so that all can access it, and have the benefits of that data base being available at their finger tips. There is nothing else that the President of the United States could have done that would be of more value to the United States, and the World, than digitizing the Library of Congress, for this library contains all books in the English Language. Having the Library of Congress on a data base that all can access will move the world ahead in ways that no one can imagine at this time.
Knowledge is power. Everyone will have the power of the knowledge of the Library of Congress once the digitizing of the books is completed and put on line.
More information will be shared by business and technology, via the internet. There will be technical libraries which will cause new developments that we cannot dream of at this time. The development of science will speed up at an incredible rate with scientific data being put in digital form and available over the Internet.
Things are changing fast now. The rate of change we have at this time is very slow compared to the rate of change which will occur when the information of the world, the scientific data of the entire world, is digitized and made available for all to use. The Internet will affect the world more than the Printing press affected change, at a much faster rate. Of course there will still be business and technology secrets by corporations, but the basic scientific data will be available for all to use in research and development.
Going into the new millennium, we will be going into an era where there will be things we cannot dream of at this time. The rate of human advancement will be so great that no one can imagine what it will bring.
