TOPICS INCLUDE:
• New forms of computing
• Energy and fuel sources
• Web enhancements
• Sensation technologies
• Smart spaces
• Language networks
• Mediated and augmented reality
CONFERENCE OVERVIEW
2001:That mystical Space Odyssey deadline when machines rule the world. Though we haven’t yet crossed the threshold when machines take over, we are at a point where agents and bots will do our bidding, with our authority, but often without our knowledge. Computer "intelligence" will be pervasive, embedded everywhere, and personalization engines will recognize us wherever we go.
The future of computing will be increasingly multi-disciplinary, with approaches to hardware and software development taking place between computer science, molecular biology, chemistry, and physics. We’ll have computing systems based on molecular logic and memory, with nano-size wires, which interface with silicon or biological systems. Nearer term, we’ll see huge strides in computers that understand and respond to human gestures and other sensory inputs.
Future systems will be far more flexible than today, able to reconfigure and even fully evolve themselves. Without reconfigurable machines, there is no way out of the current microchip design crisis. Reconfigurability can also cure wildly expensive, shrinking product life cycles and achieve product longevity through new horizons of flexibility.
HUMAN INTERFACE TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
Monday, September 10, 12:30 - 4:30 P.M.
The mission of the Human Interface Technology Laboratory (HIT Lab) is to develop interfaces between people and machines that unlock the power of human intelligence and link minds. The HIT Lab is a multidisciplinary research environment of about 120 people, including undergraduate and graduate students, faculty associates, professional staff and visiting scholars. Lab projects encompass medicine, education, design and entertainment applications with an emphasis on the design and development of virtual and augmented reality interfaces.
In addition to licensing technology to established companies, the HIT Lab has spun off or helped start 18 companies over the past ten years. Recent inventions have included the virtual retinal display (VRD) and the MAGIC BOOK. The Lab also conducts research on pain alleviation and the treatment of phobias using immersive virtual environments.
The HIT Lab research been featured on Scientific American Frontiers, NOVA, Horizon and Tomorrow’s World. The Lab received the prestigious Discover award for Technology Innovation for the development of the Virtual Retinal Display and was recently awarded the Satava Award for our work in bringing new virtual interface technology to medicine.
Further information is available at http://www.hitl.washington.edu/.