A step closer to replacing humankind with computers

For the course Business Information Technology we interviewed Professor Emiel Krahmer, who is currently leading the VICI project. In this project, researchers try to analyze how humans refer to objects like 'that man with the purse or that man with the beard' and create a system which enables computer systems to refer as people do. In the future, your navigation system will not say 'Turn right after 500 meters', but 'Turn right after the supermarket'. 

If, in the future, machines can interpret and generate language like humans, when will they take over jobs like teaching? For example, a teacher doesn`t know everything, even when he wrote the book himself, but a computer does know the whole book, word for word.

Here is the full interview:

When poop hits the fan twice!

As mentioned in the previous blog, the number one frustration in the Dutch public space is dog poop. With this project we try to 'beat shit with science' [snoep-dog.blogspot.com]. Concretely, we are trying to solve the poop problem with previous research; combining psychological-, sociological, cognitive and human interface designing studies to develop a device which services as well as the dog as the dog owner. 

Almost every dog owner in the Netherlands has to pay dog taxes up to € 118 depending on the region he lives in*. These taxes are reserved for cleaning up the dog feces, but why should a dog owner clean the feces while he pay taxes to get the feces cleaned? A more honest policy should reward dog owners who do clean their dogs’ feces.

The concept for our design is very simple: reward the dog owner for cleaning up the feces and reward the dog for making it easy for the dog owner by pooping near the bin. Our study showed that the biggest annoyance concerning cleaning feces is walking with a filled bag of hot doggy output. To reduce the distance of walking with a filled bag we thought of the Pavlov effect, which is rewarding the dog for pooping near the bin by giving him a dog candy after the owner deposits a filled bag. On the other hand, the owner is being rewarded financially by a tax deduction or by playing a game to win a dog toy, the owner can choose only one option per bag deposit.

We are now in the evaluation phase, where we test the interface and the bin on experts and potential users. Let`s hope that the next blog will be about the results of this phase..

* Tax for one dog, in 2011

When poop hits the fan!

A totally different but still relevant subject for todays` blog: beating the biggest problem in the Netherlands! No it isn`t the economical crisis, traffic, terrorism, globalization or the melting of the North pole, no it is dog shit lying on the pavement waiting for people to step on. By the way, did you ever see a dog stepping in one?

In the past few weeks, my blog was about: social media, information systems, business intelligence and computer clouding. A typical question in a intelligence test could be: what is the next topic? A. mobile phones, B. IT in airplanes, or C. dog shit. I guess that only analphabetic and blind people would answer the question correct.  

For our course User Interface Design (UID) we had to choose a project in which we design a product according to several designing rules and methods. After a bad choice and several brainstorming session we came to the conclusion to design a dog poop bin which solves the poop problem. Brainstorming should be extreme, but I never thought that it would be this extreme…

During this project we learned allot and have developed a quite good poop bin. I`m not ashamed to tell my friends about it, because the idea behind this bin is 100% scientific, and it looks nice! (for a poopbin). 

This project is all about designing a system for users. It makes no difference in designing a door, database, website or a space shuttle in the designing perspective (yeah, maybe that was to extreme, but you know what I mean if you keep reading). The goal of a good designer is to design a product which is easy and fun to use, if possible. Norman (2002) gives a clear example: why do designers make a pull bar on the side of the door where u need to push, not pull? Almost everyone that doesn`t live in the jungle has pulled a door while he had to push it, or the other way around. Blame the designer! If the door opens by pushing, then don’t make a pull bar on that side, the only way to open that door would be pushing, so no problem.. and you save a pull and push sticker.

With the development of the bin we have learned, and still learn to design good products by thinking like a designer, not a technician or a decorator.  In the next blog I will get into more detail on our project and the connection between this en previous blogs should become more clear..

The ‘new world order’ in IT

Since the beginning of the computer era, computers are treated as individual machines. The term  'Personal Computer' (PC) is made up by marketing guys to make it sound more friendly, and sellable. Each PC has its own hard- and software and can function independently.

The ‘new  computer world order’ is a world where Personal Computers become Mass Computers; the user only sees the monitor, keyboard and mouse, other hard- and software are located and executed somewhere else. The monitor contains a network adapter which sends the information via internet, maybe thousands of miles away, to a server where that users` space and hardware is reserved.

A part of this concept isn`t new for large organizations, where software is stored and executed on central servers, located in the same building as the users. I`m sure that you even use these applications; from a simple website to webmail. The webmail for example, is being executed on a mail server, the users` computer only shows the results, in this case the emails.  

The Pros and Cons of cloud computing
Every computer is a Personal Computer thanks to Mass computing. The personal configurations like: email, desktop wallpaper, pictograms, files and file structure, internet favorites, etcetera are available at every computer that has access to the cloud provider. It is a matter of logging in, and your personal configuration is run on a server and shown on your monitor as if it is run on a ‘not-clouded PC’. The fast internet connection and high performance servers on the other side of the network, will give the user the feeling that the applications are executed local.
Because hard and software is managed in large numbers and the specialization of the cloud provider, the IT costs will be considerable lower.

There is one large con: the organization depends  completely on the cloud provider. Giving the most essential part of the organization to another organization is for most potential users a bridge to far. Not only the privacy sensitive data, but also the possibility of the whole IT system going offline, is like putting your hart in the hands of a strangers.

It looks like there is no turning back, one day all computers will be clouded!