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CONFERENCE AT UB HIGHLIGHTS IDEAS FOR FUTURE MACHINES
Published on November 3, 2001
Author: FRED O. WILLIAMS - News Business Reporter
© The Buffalo News Inc.
Xerox Corp.'s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) is famed for computer innovations, including the first commercial mouse. But it's also working on ways to make old-fashioned documents work better in a digital world, its leader said Friday in Amherst.
"Reading isn't dead, it's just not fashionable," said Michael Paige, director of PARC and a Xerox vice president. Paige was among the luminaries of the technology world who spoke at a conference at the University at Buffalo Friday. The Digital Frontier: The Buffalo Summit 2001 continues today at the Center for the Arts on UB's North Cam pus. As much about humanity as technology, the conference highlighted ideas for future machines and how they might transform everyday experience. For all the appeal of 3D graphics and virtual worlds, words on paper remain a fundamental currency of the information age, Paige said. However, "we feel we could do a lot better if we made them much more alive." Among PARC's research projects is reusable digital "paper" that looks like a printed page but downloads text electronically. Steve Mann, another speaker, presented a different view of communication. Over an electronic link from the University of Toronto, the self-described "cyborg" said wearable computers he designs can connect people nearly as though they were peering into each other's consciousness. "What I've been doing for the last 20 years is . . . create a computer system that is more an extension of an individual's mind and body," he said. Miniature electronics embedded in Mann's glasses surround him in a digitally "mediated" reality, in which he can freeze the scene before him, replay it and upload it to the Internet. He can also read e-mail while jogging along the street, which he called a rudimentary use of the wearable computers. But his Internet connection to the conference screen was faulty, leaving out the video images that were supposed to stream from his headset. Technicians scrambled to make the connection while Mann read from his book "Cyborg." "As an experiment, it was a extraordinary success," said Clifford Stoll, a network expert and prominent technology skeptic. "It demonstrated how shallow this ubiquitous computer concept is." Stoll, author of "Silicon Snake Oil," will give a talk, "Why Computers Don't Belong in School," at the conference today at 10:45 a.m. In addition to tackling big-picture questions, the conference was also designed to highlight UB's own research capability. More than 600 people registered for the Digital Summit, UB officials said, while others tapped into a live video stream on the conference Web site, http://digitalsummit.buffalo.edu. "I think it's very exciting to have all of these top-notch people here," UB Provost Elizabeth D. Capaldi said. Many people in Buffalo don't realize how much high-tech research is going on at UB, said Capaldi, the university's top academic officer. The conference will help promote the university's work in this area. "It focuses all of this international attention on a strength of ours," she said. Yahoo! Internet Life magazine recently named UB as the 10th most-wired university campus in the country. Outside the lecture hall where Paige spoke, displays highlighted UB's technology capabilities. Computer models generated by UB's Center for Computational Research supercomputer allowed viewers to see alternatives to the Peace Bridge from different angles. While Stoll argues that technology is oversold as a tool for solving problems that might respond better to human interaction, others said such advances as electronic paper and wearable computers will continue the digital revolution. Instead of separating people, technology can extend communication to levels that language cannot reach, said Jaron Lanier, lead scientist of the National Tele-Immersion Initiative and coiner of the term "virtual reality." Computer simulation can produce objects that would otherwise exist only in the imagination. Once rendered in a digital world, they can be understood and shared by others, Lanier said in a talk titled "Technology and the future of the Human Soul." "Digital culture is above an adventure in understanding what it means to be human," he said. Staff writer Steve Watson contributed to this report. e-mail: fwilliams@buffnews.comMichael Paige
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