Open the Pod Bay Doors, RealSense
Emotions and the Future of Computing
By Brian David Johnson
It had been a long day, I was tired and I never expected to catch a shocking clear picture of the future of computing. But it happened. It happened in an instant with such clarity that it made my heart race and my mind reel.
I stood in the labs at Intel Corporation where I’m a futurist. It was 2014 and one of my colleagues was showing me a new product slated to launch the next year.
“You can see the computer,” the researcher pointed to the laptop.
“Yes,” I smiled. “I can see the computer.”
“But now, with this,” she pointed at the Intel® RealSense™ depth camera imbedded above the screen of the laptop. “With this now the computer can see you.”
I leaned in close to the computer. I stared at the laptop and the laptop stared back at me.
In a flash I saw a whole new kind of computing. In a future where we could enable a computer to see us and hear us…when we give a machine the ability to understand us personally, as an individual it could give rise to an emotional connection between us and our computers. The laptop knows me and I know the laptop. I can stare at the tablet and the tablet can stare back. This changes everything.
“Are you ok?” the researcher asked me after a long silence.
I leaned in a little closer to the laptop and said, “Open the pod bay doors HAL.”
“Look Dave I can see you’re really upset about this…”
Film director Stanley Kubrick and science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke’s vision for the future of computing in the 1968 movie 2001 a Space Odyssey has shaped how generations imagine and often fear intelligent computers. The film introduced us to HAL 9000 a self-aware artificial intelligence that malfunctions (aka goes insane) and causes quite a lot of havoc on a mission to Jupiter.
In one of the more tense moments in the movie Dave, one of the astronauts, sits in a pop outside the space ship and commands HAL to open the pod bay doors. “Open the pod bay doors HAL.” has become a popular joke for people when talking to computers. The response from the movie is “I’m afraid I can’t do that Dave.” But popular culture has found no end of clever various. Probably the most popular was with Apple’s Siri personal assistant. When a user asked Siri to open the doors she would reply, “I’m sorry (Insert your name) I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
Of course this was just a clever joke, but what happens when it’s not a trick? What happens when your PC can actually see you? How does it change the relationship we have with our machines?
Currently our relationship with computers is based on command and control. We ask the computer to do something and it does it. If the computer doesn’t do what we ask it to do then the computer is broken. It’s a very one sided relationship.
But now imagine if the computer can see you, hear you and know you as an individual. It means amazing things for security. Sign into your computer with your face and only you can use your computer. It knows you. It not only knows what you like and what you don’t like. But it can know how you are feeling. Are you happy or sad? Are you in a hurry or bored?
Now your computer can react to you on a whole different level. If you’re sad maybe it tries to cheer you up. Bored? It can show you something interesting. In a hurry? It can help you ease the tension and get more done. No longer is your computer just a tool, now it can truly cares about you.
When a computer knows you as an individual it will open up a radically different interaction paradigm. It could become emotional computing.
Far from Kubrick and Clarke’s vison on a computer run amok our machines become more intelligent, emotionally intelligent so that they can interact with us better. Humans use emotional intelligence every day to interact with each other. Why wouldn’t we tap into that to make our interactions with a computer more efficient, fun, and satisfying?
That day in a flash I could see a different tomorrow. A future where our machines are able to understand us and deepen the connection we share. We can then design them to truly embrace the diversity and quirkiness that makes humanity so awesome.
Flash forward to today, Intel RealSense technology has launched and we are that much closer to this future. We can now interact with our PCs and tablets in a more natural and immersive way. We can capture our world in 3D and then edit it. We can control our games and apps with gesture controls. But what I find truly exciting is that these devices can now adapt to you. Ultimately this will redefine how we interact with our computers and this is just the beginning. Once this technology gets into the hand of developers and young minds, just imagine what they will build!
I can’t wait to lean into my tablet and say, “Open the pod bay doors RealSense.” I wonder what it will do?
To find products available today with Intel® RealSense™ technology, click here.
Illustration by Kristina Collantes
