Internet – Scenario 2015
Being There
Once fiber optic lines reach our homes, life will change in fundamental ways. High definition video communication will not only be affordable, but ubiquitous—ditto computing. The result: A range of services such as online translations, intelligent agents that extrapolate information from the Web, and communication devices that automatically network their output. Here's a look at what it might be like.
A single fiber optic line to the home will provide virtually unlimited bandwidth. Here, typical users in 2015 discuss building plans with their architect in Italy. An avatar (right in monitor) provides answers to difficult questions. Details appear on hand-held devices and are simultaneously printed out. Translation services, secure connections and event compression e-mails of exchanges are provided automatically
Good-bye rain. Hello sunny weather. We're finally firming up our plans to leave London. 27 years after I moved here from Liverpool and founded IntrAcoustics—a company that sells wirelessly networked chip-based, diagnostic acoustical systems—it's time to turn the business over to our daughters and head for the hills. Specifically, the hills around Siena, Italy. Just a year ago my wife Sally was asking her agent—a swarthy avatar she calls Mel—to do a search for potential construction sites in central Italy, and bingo, we found a whole hilltop. It had an abandoned brick-baking facility called "il Tegolaio," which was enough of an excuse to guarantee a construction permit for a "renovated" structure. Mel found the owner—it turned out to be an office of the Catholic Church that had only recently gone online—and helped us negotiate a contract that allows me to deduct the entire price as a charitable donation. Not bad for a guy who barely passed first semester Italian in college!
Naturally, even though we had already done so virtually, we physically visited the site a couple of times. But we've been able to handle just about all of the administrative- and construction-related business from up here. Luigi, our architect, loves high tech almost as much as Sally and I do. A couple of years ago he ordered a fiber optic connection for his home—which has since become his office—only a year after we got ours here in London.
Things have really changed since OptiWorld hooked us up. Not many people who have fiber bother to go into an office any more. In fact, there's a whole new market for converting office space into "homes in the sky." Most of our friends have wall displays in their studies or living rooms, and the combination of nearly unlimited bandwidth and 3D optics gives them a feeling of being together that would have been unthinkable even five years ago. My retired friends tell me they love it because they can get together for games with acquaintances around the world, and kids who travel to ancient Rome or Aztec sites in Mexico on virtual class trips say that school is great.
Like everything around us, the displays—wall- or pocket-sized—are networked, which brings me back to my new pastime: participating in the construction of our home-to-be. Sally and I had just sat down in the living room to watch merged images from the dozens of tiny cameras that have been mounted on lighting masts around the site and inside the house. Connected to a fiber line—one of the first steps taken in terms of site preparation—the cameras form a virtual network that allows us to enjoy seamless panoramic views and, more importantly, allows machines at the site to measure distances precisely so as to order and trim materials to exact specifications.
Then a vibration in my wrist phone alerted me to a picture call with an icon of Luigi's face. I stood up in excitement, and with a motion of my hand, flicked the icon to the wall screen, where Luigi suddenly appeared as he was getting out of his car at the site.
The service provider's automated "secure connection translation and event compression service identifiers" lit up with a soft triple "ping" and Luigi spoke in what seemed like a flawless British accent—even though we know he can only speak Italian. He looked in the direction of his portable communication terminal, which had already linked with the output of the wired cameras to form a perfect, high-resolution image. "Hi Stuart. Hello Sally. It's beautiful down here today. Weather's just great. It's about this bloody speech-enabled augmented reality system—excuse my French," he said. "The provider just informed me that they still don't know if the next generation system you wanted would be able to automatically detect the locations of every water and electric line and other non-visible items for maintenance purposes. Shall we do it the old-fashioned way and develop digital diagrams of the locations of all these services and then transfer them into the CPU? It'll cost money. But we know it will work."
Thanks to a spectrum of technologies, the carrying capacity of fiber optic lines is growing steadily. In addition to improving the quality of fiber, researchers are finding new ways to split laser light into more frequencies, while increasing the amount of data that can be transmitted on a single frequency
"How much?" I asked. "And by the way, how can it detect hidden objects without the benefit of digital plans?" There was a distinctive harp-like sound as Mel appeared. "If you'll look at your hand units, you'll see the difference in price," he said. "It's substantial. Furthermore, regarding your second question, the cameras have received a new program that uses triangulation to compile a geographical record of every object installed in and around the house. Having reviewed this subject carefully, including what analysts are saying about the augmented reality company, I estimate that the software you need will be available for downloading by the time the house is ready for occupancy." A printed report confirming Mel's statement was already sliding out of a little opening below the wall screen.
"All right, then it's clear," I said. "No expensive plans." Luigi, who had also heard what Mel had said—in Italian, of course—looked surprised but relieved. "You'll sign off on that decision?" he asked. "Of course," I said. "Anyway, you'll receive the event compression version in a second as an e-mail. What more do you want?" As the picture reverted to a panoramic view of the construction site, we noticed that two priests were standing on a large pile of bricks near the building. "Now what do you suppose those two are doing there?" I asked. "Alan," said Sally with a worried tone in her voice, "are you absolutely sure you understood all that tax business about the donation?"
Arthur F. Pease