RSSIntel Talks Up 'Humanized' Computing
By Ed Oswald | Published March 4, 2005, 12:36 PM
While it may seem like something out of Star Trek, imagine being able to talk on the phone with someone who does not understand English - yet will hear it spoken in his or her native tongue because the phone automatically translates speech into the necessary language. Chipmaker Intel sees it happening within the next decade.
In a keynote address at the Intel Developer Forum, Justin Rattner, director of Intel's corporate technology group, told attendees that much of the company's recent moves are to prepare for these types of tasks, which will require much more computing power than is available today.
"To deliver these capabilities in products that are easy to use and attractive to many people requires that we, as an industry, rethink our approach to platform development," he argued.
Intel recently has begun to look towards multiple-core processors that will offer supercomputer-like performance in a small form factor like today's computers. Having multiple cores within a processor is like adding more "brains" to allow the computer to handle several complex applications at once without degradation in performance.
The company has also begun to look into silicon photonics technology, in which lasers are used within silicon to transport data from one place to another very quickly. The new approach removes the need for today's copper wires that have performance limitations and could stunt processor speed growth in the future.
As well as working on the hardware side of things, Intel is also developing software to ensure its new and future lines of processors are able to handle a large number of simultaneous tasks, which will be necessary to make these more "humanized" applications possible.
"At Intel our research focus is all about making technology more valuable and useful for people," Rattner told the audience. "With the increased capabilities and opportunities we're developing in our labs combined with the company's platform focus, this is an extremely exciting time to be an Intel researcher working with the industry to create the future."
Imagine how this could be abuse. It could be made to say anything on the other end and not just in a different language.
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Paranoia, how I love thee. Think about how illogical your statement is.
If companies did what you suggest on purpose, people would catch on to it and would stop using the service as a result.
Moreover, what motivation would a company have in doing such a thing? "I know! Let's have the computer translate 'je suis' (French for I am) as 'screw you hippie' instead! It'll be a laugh a minute!" or "We'll show those silly French who's boss now!" The thought of these ideas is just absurd.
If you want to be paranoid, you should worry more about robotics and cybernetics. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm perfectly content with my computers NOT looking and acting like humans. I want my computers to function and behave like a computer--- as a tool. Given how intolerant humans are of each other, I'd hate to see how computers would be treated and end up with a Matrix, A.I., or Battlestar Galactica scenario down the road someday.
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wouldn't that be great if we could call people in foreign, native country and talk to them in there own language. can't wait for this technique to come out
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