For those readers who think life will become terribly cacophonous in the presence of machines that talk and listen, let me say that we seem to work just fine with telephone handsets in our homes and offices. And for those of you who feel it is plumb silly to talk to an appliance, recall for a moment how you felt about answering machines not too long ago. No, speech really is the right channel, and it is time, once and for all, to move with resolve. Pin the tail on the donkey Imagine computer eyes all over the place - not just stereo, but holovision. This new vision system will have cameras anywhere and everywhere, not just on the computer's front or sides.
Computers can leave their eyes festooned everyplace.
In earlier Wired issues I have commented on the coincidence that PC-based teleconferencing systems employ a camera above the display and a speaker below it, resulting in a unit that could serve equally well as a computer's eye and ear. Such a configuration can look and know you are there. It can know if you are smiling. But let's go a step further. It is not just a matter of removing the computers' blindfolds, but of giving them a new kind of vision, the ability to look into each room in your house, the oven, the closets, the garden - even the traffic on your street.