Smart Gadgets May One Day Anticipate Our Needs
From: San Jose Mercury News - 07/07/2010
By: Steve Johnson

Silicon Valley researchers predict that future consumer gadgets, embedded
with sophisticated sensors and carefully designed computer software, will be
able to anticipate and fulfill users' needs without having to be told. Intel
researchers say that gadgets will eventually be able to read their owner's
emotions. For example, a recent Intel study explored gadgets that detect mood
swings "while people are driving, singing, chatting with friends, attending a
boring meeting, and even while going to the dentist." Researchers at Japan's
Hokkaido University recently studied devices that could serve as "artificial
companions for elderly and lonely people" and car navigation equipment that
could "entertain drivers by talking and possibly by joking." Oregon Health &
Science University researchers have developed a smart pill that can detect
the onset of dementia in older people by recording whether the patient takes
their medicine. Meanwhile, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
wants to develop computerized assistants for military personnel that "can
reason, learn from experience, be told what to do, explain what they are
doing, reflect on their experience, and respond robustly to surprise."  

Read the entire article at:
http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_15450492

Link:
Activating Humans with Humor
http://eprints.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2115/43082/1/TIS92D-12_2394-2401.pdf