http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2556931034-685 08:14 AM ET 11/04/98 New computer technology focuses on mass market By Neil Winton, Science and Technology Corresponent CANNES, France, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Computers will become simple to use and cheap to buy, with a mass market for small devices giving easy access to world-wide networks, high technology companies told a conference here on Wednesday. Consumers will buy ``smart quills'' to interogate vast data bases which will be much more reliable than today's networks, thanks to ``IT simulation.'' Devices will take orders from their owners verbally. ``Intelligent agents'' will patrol the Internet gathering information for report writers. The world's entire culture will be turned into computer language and be readily available to everyone. Research leaders from International Business Machines Corp, British Telecommunications Plc, and Hewlett-Packard Co presented their visions of the future to Gartner Group's annual European conference, Symposium/ITxpo98. Chris Wheddon, director of BT's System Engineering division demonstrated the ``smart quill,'' shaped like a fat pen with a key pad and screen. Users can translate written words into computer data and surf the internet. ``We are looking at an intelligent agent called ``Radar'' which can effectively look over your shoulder at what you're writing, and set off over the Internet and find relevant research material,'' Wheddon said. Hewlett-Packard said in the future, data will be divided into that which is ``behind the wall'' - a massive data base, and ``in front of the wall'' - where consumers plug in for information. According to Hewlett-Packard,'Behind the wall' would be like a huge utility. ``Just as gas and electricity companies make available power on tap for consumers, this would make information available for consumers using information devices including personal digital imaging,'' said Dr John Taylor, director of HP Laboratories based in Bristol, England. IBM, the world's biggest computer company, talked about its concept of ``pervasive computing.'' ``We will go from today's PC's (personal computers) to smart devices which use the network. There will be a host of smart devices embedded with powerful little devices like this IBM microdrive,'' said Dr Karl Kuemmerle, director of IBM Zurich research. Kuemmerle held up a device 2-1/2 centimetres in diameter and about one centimetre thick, weighing less than 20 grammes. The device had enough memory for twenty 300-page novels. IBM also expected products controlled by voice to become ubiquitous. ``We have many of our dictation devices on desktops now, and we will take the current technology beyond desktops to telephones with interactive applications which can process and understand languages. We will have speech synthesis which will translate the written word into speech. Among other things, this will help the disabled,'' Kuemmerle said. Smart cards, like plastic credit cards but with computer chips built in, will also become widespread, he said. Another speaker, Eric Bantegnie, president and chief executive officer of Simulog) of Paris, France, said reliability of computers and systems was a constant irritant to users. If a huge utility of data and information was to be reliable, more powerful testing was needed. As cars and planes were tested to destruction before being offered to consumers, so the world of computing should do the same. ``We need IT simulation to make sure the product can do the job, to simulate loads on networks and map out all the tasks it should be able to do,'' he said. ``It should be able to ask questions like - what if the normal traffic load doubles or triples, or assess the impact of relations with other networks, to understand the limits of the system, predicting the break point and find where it might become unstable,'' Bantegnie said. According to IBM's Kuemmerle, all this development spells turmoil for high technology companies. ``The business is wide open again. Which new operating systems will win? It's not clear who the winners will be but it has the makings of a battlefield,'' Kuemmerle said. Neil Winton 44 171 542 7975 neil+jinks.demon.co.uk mobile no: 0385-234-151 ____________________________________________________________________ -------------------------------------------------------------------- Join The Web Consultants Association : Register on our web site Now Web Consultants Web Site : http://just4u.com/webconsultants If you lose the instructions All subscription/unsubscribing can be done directly from our website for all our lists. ---------------------------------------------------------------------
