Science Fiction is one of my favorite genres of literature and movies. I love being transported to a new setting where boundaries can be pushed, altered, and sometimes broken by the imagination. However, as time goes by, the reality of the world we live in comes closer to the worlds of science fiction. New ways of communication and healthcare are developed that far exceed the expectations people had ten years ago. In the 1990s, people worldwide became connected via the internet and personal computers. Then the cellular phone technology took off, taking people from owning phones that could only make a call, while being the size of a large textbook, to having cell phones through which people could access their email, social networks, and Internet while being small enough to simply slip into their back pockets. After the past two decades, technological advancements have brought the world into a new age, an age that was only a dream twenty years ago. These new improvements reach further than the communication sector. The effect is also felt in the health, food, and business industries. The question that now needs to be contemplated is what will happen in the next five to ten years that will improve and advance society even further?
This question was recently explored and answered by IBM who has been researching and developing new software for the computer of tomorrow. This computer will be a cognitive machine, a "system that actively learns instead of passively relying on programming." Because of this, the cognitive computers will be able to push past the boundaries of human brains and senses becoming able to augment mortal senses through their mechanical learning. This is applicable to each of the five senses.
Currently, whenever a person looks at something online, whether it be a piece of clothing or a piece of fruit, they can only imagine the texture based on sight. Within the next five years, consumers will no longer be limited in this way while shopping online. IBM has developed software that will allow users everywhere to experience the texture of products while simply looking at an image of the good. The recreation of texture is made possible through vibration. Vibrations are translated into a lexicon, a dictionary of textures that match the physical appearance of the good. Once the lexicon is developed, patterns of vibrations will match to different products allowing people to know exactly what a textile or fruit feels like before they purchase it. This will impact the business industry by allowing for increase in online developments and sales. Additionally, this feature could impact the health industry. By being able to send a picture of an injury to your doctor and having him feel and analyze the condition remotely, the diagnose speed could be increased exponentially.
The common catch phrase, "A picture tells a thousand words" may become true, especially if there is a way to see, categorize, and store the thousand words a picture captures. The IBM technology has taken a step in this direction. Through the cognitive approach, computers can detect patterns that are evident through a vast collection of pictures presented. Over time, the computer will being to sort the pictures based on color, distributions, texture patterns, and edge information in order to allowing for the identification of specific scenes, like an downtown skyline versus a mountain range. Through this technology, advancements in fields like medicine can be made. Doctors could be able to analyze MRI, X-ray, and CT images through cognitive computing in order to diagnose health concerns like blood clots, skin cancer, and tumors sooner.
How many times have you been "saved by the bell" hearing something coming from behind giving you just enough time to move out of the way. What if warnings for detrimental events could be increased from seconds to minutes or hours? IBM has sought to do just that. With cognitive computers, brain functions that respond to sound waves will be imitated and communicated to response systems through sensors placed in the ground in areas prone to environmental disasters. Places that experience many floods or land slides could be helped tremendously with sensors that detect what sounds are associated with severe rainstorms and land slides, alerting communities in danger of experiencing these catastrophes before they occur saving countless lives.
Health has become one of the hot button issues in the past two decades. People are always trying to see how many pounds and sizes they can loose. Some people, however, fall off the bandwagon because the food they eat does not taste good. Others have to live on a strict diet because of health concerns like diabetes or allergies. IBM has developed a program that is able to analyze foods based on their chemical composition relating to flavor in order to develop individual meal plans promoting health standards. This ensures that people will enjoy what they eat while also cutting down on the calories. This system can also be used to help people combat food and hunger issues in third world countries.
Smell is an essential sense that detects and carries a plethora of information with each breathe. Each breath can carry information and characteristics about surroundings like germs, viruses, and data about one's physical condition. Through cognitive computing, developers hope to integrate sensory detectors into devices like cell phones that will be able to identify biomarkers with information about an individual's health status. Through the information collected, the cognitive computers will be able to constantly learn and compare results based on a person's medial history. Through these developments serious ailments will be able to be caught and avoided quicker than waiting until the disease has gained strength and versatility.
However, with all of these developments made, one must ask what would happen if the computers and software were to shut down? If society, as a whole, were to depend upon technology so much, what would happen if the computers got a virus? What would happen if someone were able to hack into the system and steal information or cause the system to shut down? Would humanity remember how to function without a computer holding their hand? I feel as though people are already depending on technology too much. I remember when my family would sit down to dinner and talk to one another without interruption except from the waiter. However, now every time my family sits down for dinner, my parents pull out their cell phones to track calories and look up news online. I look around a see that numerous other families acting the same way. Tables of four or five people sitting in silence ignoring each other while being totally consumed and distracted by their cell phones is a depressing sight to see. And yet, we tolerate it. As I sit here, writing on my laptop, I know I am part of the problem. We escape into technology trying to find distractions from the scary reality that is always plaguing us. I hope, however, that society will not become so dependent on technology that we forget how to live on our own.
I see the benefits that can come from this new cognitive computing, and I hope that the people at IBM and other technology companies will figure out how to make it work. I am intrigued by the possibilities the future holds.
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