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Computer Science and the Future: A Brief Look at What's in Store

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

We are now used to thinking of computers and software as being ubiquitous and

as the engine that drives many aspects of our social and economic lives. Today,

most business activities and processes, manufacturing systems, personal

financial management, almost all types of personal and business correspondence

and communications, government processes, healthcare, and education are driven

by the power of computing and software. It goes far beyond the computing that

happens in a desktop computer, laptop or a server. Computing is pervasive and

present in a number of devices, including home appliances, automotive systems,

consumer electronic devices including the cheapest, and most humble of them all:

mobile phones.

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The areas that Computer Science plays a critical role in are too numerous to

mention in detail, so I shall confine myself to talking about just a few in this

article.

Less than 10 years ago, a mobile phone was only owned by the privileged few

and the network coverage was spotty and unreliable. Today, as we all know, it is

carried by almost everyone who lives in urban areas and by many even in rural

areas. And a mobile phone is no longer merely a communications device. It is

already used widely for downloading media and other data, playing games,

exploring the knowledge-base contained on Internet and even for financial

transactions. The low cost, wide footprint, ease of use and convenient form

factor; all have already made the mobile phone the number one personal computing

device. Yet, we have barely begun to explore its true potential. To understand

this, consider the fact that each mobile phone also contains a number of

sensors; the microphone and GSM radio are sensors present in every mobile phone.

As one looks slightly above the entry level to more sophisticated mobile phones,

we find even more sensors like cameras, accelerometers, and GPS radios. This

opens up possibilities of creating a network of sensing and communicating

devices (ie, a 'sensor network') at a relatively low cost and without much

overhead for deployment, since the sensors are already out in the 'field.' Some

applications that immediately come to mind are traffic sensing, where the GSM

radio can be used to track the traveler's location, and the accelerometer can be

used to detect whether the traffic is flowing smoothly or is in a stop and go

scenario (typical of traffic jams). In fact, the accelerometer can even be used

to detect whether the road being navigated is bumpy or smooth. In developing

nations like India, where GPS radios are not common in mobile phones, the GSM

radio can be used as a good substitute, and can also offer the advantage of not

being constrained by needing line-of-sight to a satellite to be effective.

Dr. P. Anandan,

Managing Director, Microsoft Research Labs India
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Healthcare is another important area where I see the mobile phone being

particularly effective. Given that large tracts of rural areas are typically not

well covered by the healthcare system or by wired telephony, mobile phones offer

a way to deliver quality healthcare. Research projects are already underway in

different parts of the world, that explore ideas such as Fetal Heart Rate and

Fetal Activity Monitoring systems that use the mobile phone network to track and

record fetal activity. Another project looks to use low cost microscopes in

conjunction with mobile phones in remote rural areas to capture and transmit

microscopic images wirelessly to any lab in the world for diagnosis.

We are so used to taking pictures using digital cameras and sharing and

viewing pictures online that it is easy to forget that less than 10 years ago,

most people were still taking pictures using film cameras and getting them

processed and printed at a local photo store. In fact there was serious

skepticism that digital cameras would ever produce pictures of the quality and

resolution to replace film cameras. Yet today, consumer level cameras produce

high quality pictures in rich colors that are over 4 mega pixels. We are at a

point where hundreds if not thousands of photographs of common scenes (such as a

famous monument or tourist site) are being taken every day covering every view

and aspect of the scene. Yet when we view these pictures later, we view them one

at a time, seeing only what happened in one instance in a small part of the

scene.

View from the Gopuram Inner Courtyard Walk
Inner Courtyard Inner Courtyard with Video in the inset
3D views of the Sri Andal Temple in

SriVilliputtur, Tamil Nadu
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Technology is reaching a point where we can put these pictures together to

construct a whole 3D scene. Recently, Microsoft Research, in collaboration with

University of Washington introduced a new technology called 'phototourism' which

enables the construction of 3D scenes from photographs taken by the casual

tourist using their ordinary consumer level cameras. Today these technologies

take several hours to create the 3D model; however, with improvement in

technology and devices it is not hard to imagine these being done in a matter of

minutes if not faster. Other photo analysis technologies allow us to rapidly

capture many images of the scene with different exposure settings and create one

picture that contains the best view of the entire scene. These abilities suggest

ways of influencing how the picture is taken. One can imagine a scenario in

which the 3D model is provided within the camera viewer as a backdrop to the new

picture, thus allowing you to carefully position the camera to get the best view

of the scene. Or even rapidly show other pictures of the same scene that are

available so you can concentrate on filling in what is missing or improving the

ones taken before. And the viewing experience can move from that of looking at

isolated pictures one at a time to exploring the entire scene in 3D and in high

resolution. 3D views of the Sri Andal Temple in SriVilliputtur, Tamil Nadu are

shown on the next page.

It is a common mistake to equate the science of computing (namely 'Computer

Science') with programs and software. At the heart of this vast engine that is

powering the society and world economy lie a variety of powerful mathematical

principles and technologies such as algorithms, systems, architectures for

computing and communication, database principles and techniques, and programming

languages, environments, and methodologies. These fundamental aspects of

Computer Science are now extending their influence to fields outside computing

itself. It has begun to exert its influence in all sciences as an enabler in

their advancement. And this role as an enabler does not mean just providing

computers that speed up the process of scientific discovery, but participating

actively as a partner in the process of scientific research by bringing in its

own methodologies, discoveries and principles that can be applied to different

sciences. There are already a number of examples where Computer Science has

partnered with other sciences to bring about breakthroughs. Sciences such as

biology that focus on analyzing and modeling of proteins and molecules leverage

ideas from Computer Science such as pattern recognition and data mining and

machine learning in the very process of scientific discovery. In fact, pattern

recognition and machine learning, used extensively in areas such as spam

filtering (for email), are today being used to help in discovery of drugs for

deadly diseases like HIV. Computer Science is also being used extensively to

address another problem that threatens to become critical: hydrology. There are

a number of initiatives across the world that seek to leverage computer science

to study regional hydrology, collect, process, analyze and model information to

solve the problem of inadequate water.

Ultimately, it is the power of logical reasoning applied to empirical data

that leads to discoveries in science. And computer science, being the science of

logic as well as data manipulation and exploration is thus a natural partner in

the endeavor of scientific investigation.

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