The Cyberhuman Resource Function
It's strange how quickly the sci-fi future has become the high-tech present. One example of this is the trend toward "cyborg" technologies such as wearable computers, a trend that is bound to change the way many of us work.
It's increasingly possible that wearing computers will become relatively common in the next five to seven years. Or at least Wall Street tends to think so, judging from its enthusiasm for some of the firms focusing on wearable computing.
Although they're bound to come in various forms, "wearables" typically allow users to attach a computer to their belts and use voice commands to access data that pop up on an eyepiece attached to a headband. People's hands are freed to do other types of work. The most immediately useful application of such technologies is to boost the productivity of people who fix, check and maintain technical equipment.
Kotesh Rao, program manager at GE Power Systems, is quoted as saying, "Wearable computing will allow us to streamline the very precise procedures required in the maintenance and inspection processes for service delivery for our turbines and generators. GE is committed to using advanced technology to continuously drive productivity and enable our customers to minimize downtime." Healthcare workers may also benefit from such technology, which could allow them to retrieve and analyze medical information from remote locations.
Eventually, wearables could play an important role in employee training, development and knowledge management. For example, employees could use wearables to engage in on-the-spot interactive training sessions. Or they could use the devices to videoconference with colleagues and experts wherever they are. Wearables might even help managers supervise remote work projects.
The question is whether, further down the road, we'll go beyond wearables. Some experts believe that humans will eventually implant computer technologies in their bodies on a routine basis. Consider the case of Kevin Warwick, a professor of cybernetics at the University of Reading in the UK. In 1998 he had a silicon chip implanted in his arm, allowing a computer to monitor him as he walked through his university department. As he writes in Wired magazine, "My implant communicated via radio waves with a network of antennas throughout the department that in turn transmitted the signals to a computer programmed to respond to my actions." Via the implant, doors automatically opened for him and lights turned on as he walked into rooms.
Warwick plans to take a second experiment much further in another 16 months or so. This time, an implant will send signals back and forth between his nervous system and a computer. Using this system, he hopes to recreate previous physical actions and even emotions via computer-based signals. Even stranger is the notion of using this technology to create a new range of senses. "For example," he writes, "we can't normally process signals like ultraviolet, X-rays, or ultrasound. Infrared detects visible heat given off by a warm body, though our eyes can't see light in this part of the spectrum. But what if we fed infrared signals into the nervous system, bypassing the eyes? Would I be able to learn how to perceive them?"
To many people, it seems surreal to even be asking such questions, much less trying to answer them. But human history shows that today's bizarre and sometimes scary idea often becomes tomorrow's mundane reality. If wearables and other cyborg-like technologies become mainstream, there's no predicting exactly what the advantages and disadvantages will be. The only thing we can be relatively sure of is that, upon the arrival of these technologies, many people will be astonished that the future has again sneaked up on them so very quickly.
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For information on wearable computers, www.yahoo.com has some good links. Just search for "wearable computers." One particularly good site originates at MIT:
http://wearables.www.media.mit.edu/projects/wearables
For more information on Kevin Warwick's experiments, see
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.02/warwick.html
It's increasingly possible that wearing computers will become relatively common in the next five to seven years. Or at least Wall Street tends to think so, judging from its enthusiasm for some of the firms focusing on wearable computing.
Although they're bound to come in various forms, "wearables" typically allow users to attach a computer to their belts and use voice commands to access data that pop up on an eyepiece attached to a headband. People's hands are freed to do other types of work. The most immediately useful application of such technologies is to boost the productivity of people who fix, check and maintain technical equipment.
Kotesh Rao, program manager at GE Power Systems, is quoted as saying, "Wearable computing will allow us to streamline the very precise procedures required in the maintenance and inspection processes for service delivery for our turbines and generators. GE is committed to using advanced technology to continuously drive productivity and enable our customers to minimize downtime." Healthcare workers may also benefit from such technology, which could allow them to retrieve and analyze medical information from remote locations.
Eventually, wearables could play an important role in employee training, development and knowledge management. For example, employees could use wearables to engage in on-the-spot interactive training sessions. Or they could use the devices to videoconference with colleagues and experts wherever they are. Wearables might even help managers supervise remote work projects.
The question is whether, further down the road, we'll go beyond wearables. Some experts believe that humans will eventually implant computer technologies in their bodies on a routine basis. Consider the case of Kevin Warwick, a professor of cybernetics at the University of Reading in the UK. In 1998 he had a silicon chip implanted in his arm, allowing a computer to monitor him as he walked through his university department. As he writes in Wired magazine, "My implant communicated via radio waves with a network of antennas throughout the department that in turn transmitted the signals to a computer programmed to respond to my actions." Via the implant, doors automatically opened for him and lights turned on as he walked into rooms.
Warwick plans to take a second experiment much further in another 16 months or so. This time, an implant will send signals back and forth between his nervous system and a computer. Using this system, he hopes to recreate previous physical actions and even emotions via computer-based signals. Even stranger is the notion of using this technology to create a new range of senses. "For example," he writes, "we can't normally process signals like ultraviolet, X-rays, or ultrasound. Infrared detects visible heat given off by a warm body, though our eyes can't see light in this part of the spectrum. But what if we fed infrared signals into the nervous system, bypassing the eyes? Would I be able to learn how to perceive them?"
To many people, it seems surreal to even be asking such questions, much less trying to answer them. But human history shows that today's bizarre and sometimes scary idea often becomes tomorrow's mundane reality. If wearables and other cyborg-like technologies become mainstream, there's no predicting exactly what the advantages and disadvantages will be. The only thing we can be relatively sure of is that, upon the arrival of these technologies, many people will be astonished that the future has again sneaked up on them so very quickly.
====================================================
For information on wearable computers, www.yahoo.com has some good links. Just search for "wearable computers." One particularly good site originates at MIT:
http://wearables.www.media.mit.edu/projects/wearables
For more information on Kevin Warwick's experiments, see
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.02/warwick.html