ACM TechNews

Reality TV: When the Tube Talks Back

Globe and Mail (CAN) (01/11/08) Hartley, Matt

At the International Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas, consumer electronics manufacturers displayed wall-sized TVs that recognize who is in front of them, car stereo systems that are controlled by voice, and portable devices that can tell a user what movies are playing at a theater by pointing the device at the marquee. "We'll see things that are different, and novel interfaces that use computer vision to basically allow computers to see the environment like we humans can," says University of Toronto engineering professor Parham Aarabi. While most of these technologies are still in development and years away from the consumer market, revolutionary products on the market now, such as the iPhone and Nintendo Wii, show that technology is rapidly changing and consumers are ready for new, innovative products. Some of the technology, like speech recognition, is relatively old technology but is only now being refined to the point where it can be useful in consumer electronics. During his keynote address, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates demonstrated software that can recognize people or places, and predicted that it will eventually be available on Windows Mobile devices. "We're not too far away from that right now, there are a variety of technologies where cameras on the street can recognize people," Aarabi says. "The technology is there now; for better or worse that's something we might see within one or two decades."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/
LAC.20080111.RTALKTOME11/TPStory/Business

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