Stalking the Invisible Computer

I n the nineteenth century, printing presses, textile equipment, and even ceiling fans lacked an integral power source. The steam engine typically powered most machines in a building. A multitude of leather belts connected the power source to the equipment it drove. That arrangement seems hard to believe today when we don't give a thought to the motors integrated into most equipment, vehicles, appliances, and tools. How many people (present readership excepted) even speculate about the motor in a cuisinart, vacuum cleaner, hand drill, or cordless screwdriver?

The analogy between computers in the twentieth century and those steam engines of yesteryear is pretty obvious. Not long ago computer access required a terminal connected to a centralized mainframe or mini. Then computing came to the desktop via personal computers and workstations. Now there are more computers than there are desktops. Because most people tend not to think about the computers embedded in other systems, computers become invisible. Out there, beyond the desktop in the realm of the invisible computer, lies the future of computing, according to Mark Weiser of Xerox PARC.

You may be familiar with Weiser's concept of "ubiquitous computing," a topic he discussed in his speech this past May at the PC Tech Forum in San Francisco. With mainframes, he points out, we have a one-to-many relationship between computers and users. With personal computers, we have a one-to-one relationship. Ubiquitous computing offers a many-to-one relationship. Like pod people in The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, embedded computers will soon be everywhere.

"For 30 years most interface design, and most computer design, has been headed down the path of the 'dramatic' machine," says Weiser. "Design's highest ideal is to make a computer so exciting, so wonderful, so interesting, that we never want to be without it. A less-traveled path I call the 'invisible'; its highest ideal is to make a computer so embedded, so fitting, so natural, that we use it without even thinking about it." On the outside familiar things will remain the same. On the inside will lurk computers.

In the early- to mid-80s, the drama of the personal computer was dampened by the lack of a broad enough spectrum of appealing applications. Not everyone wanted to spend $3,000 to run word processing and spreadsheet software. The demand attenuated when people bought computers and then didn't know what to do with them. Many of these "dramatic" machines ended up in the closet, and the subsequent demand for personal computers dropped below expectations. People ordinarily don't lust after technology. They don't want computers per se-but they'd be happy to get help finding parking places or tracking the contents of their kitchen cabinets or doing their banking.

The devices that provide these services will all be networked together. We can expect "a world of fully connected devices, with cheap wireless networks everywhere," says Weiser. In his view, "you need not carry anything with you, since information will be accessible everywhere."

Ubiquitous computing will make PCs and workstations the truly invisible computers. They will wither away, says Weiser, "because computing access will be everywhere: in the walls, on wrists, and in ıscrap computers' lying about to be grabbed as needed." For more information on ubiquitous computing, the web page is located at http://www.ubiq.com/hypertext/weiser/UbiHome.html.