Mobile: Future of the Internet

Mobile phones will become the primary Internet device for most people by 2020, largely due to their increasing computing power, predicts the "Future of the Internet," a new Pew Internet & American Life Project report. "Telephony [will be] offered under a set of universal standards and protocols accepted by most operators internationally, making for reasonably effortless movement from one part of the world to another," the report says. The report, based on a survey of 578 Internet activists, builders, and commentators, also predicts that despite the widespread access to other cultures and viewpoints on the Internet, Internet use will not make people more socially tolerant. The report says that some survey respondents even suggested that the divide between the tolerant and the intolerant could widen due to Internet-based information-sharing tactics. The report also found that 55 percent of experts believe that by 2020 people will routinely interact in artificial spaces through virtual worlds and other types of augmented reality. Voice activation and touch interfaces will be common by 2020, predict nearly two-thirds of experts, and "air-typing" will become common because small handheld devices will display a full size virtual keyboard on any flat surface. A majority of experts, 78 percent, believe that the current Internet architecture will not be completely replaced by a new system in 2020, but search, security, and reliability will have been improved by next-generation research.

Microsoft Research Projects

Microsoft is supporting a host of projects in its research and development division that are focused on tackling real-world technical challenges but could have a potentially dramatic impact on computing. One such project is Eagle 1, a tool for disaster recovery teams that captures information from multiple databases and generates real-time interactive maps through the use of geospatial mapping technology. Microsoft Surface, which has reached the product phase, promotes social interaction through a multitouch table with a ruggedized acrylic interface. Its capabilities include object recognition, optical tagging, and interaction with physical objects. LucidTouch V2 technology is a credit card-sized display screen that the user can reach behind to control a mobile device. Visual Studio 2010 upgrades Microsoft's Visual Studio development platform with new features that include unified modeling language, a debugging tool that can pinpoint non-reproducible bugs by automatically generating data sets, and an application that lets development teams visualize a model of the existing development architecture and find any existing code assets that are not well categorized. The Touch Wall is a new hardware/software interface with multitouch control that can mix and match media on the same large-screen display to enhance collaboration. The OSLO project offers a framework that allows all members of a team to access data models in a repository across the entire software development life cycle. Microsoft also is working on a robotic receptionist to be installed at the company headquarters that will help visitors find transportation, using voice and facial recognition technology. Finally, BlueTrack is mouse technology that employs a wider and brighter laser beam than conventional optics so that it can operate on uneven surfaces.

Hackers & Cellphones

Georgia Tech security researchers say that hackers will likely target cell phones for use in creating botnet armies. They say that as cell phones get more computing power and better Internet connections, hackers will be able to exploit vulnerabilities in mobile-phone operating systems and Web applications. Millions of PCs have already become part of botnets, and owners generally never know. The Georgia Tech researchers say that if cell phones become absorbed into botnets, new types of scams could be created. For example, infected phones could be programmed to call pay-per-minute 900 numbers, or to buy ringtones from companies established by criminals. The researchers say hackers are particularly drawn to cell phones because they are always on, they are always sending and receiving data, and they generally have poor security. "This is the perfect platform (for hackers)," says Georgia Tech professor Patrick Traynor. "There are some challenges for the adversaries, but we've seen them overcome the challenges in their way before." One challenge for hackers is learning how cellular networks work, which are tightly controlled by cell phone operators.

The Future of Internet Search

Danny Fine of BrainDamage in Haifa, Israel, says computers, not people, should be carrying out Internet searches. He says searching is a form of artificial intelligence that analyzes documents and creates a map of keywords and their relationships to each other. "The search engine doesn't really understand what you're asking, of course--it's just a dumb computer, after all," Fine says. "The way it figures out what you're looking for is by comparing your request to a long list of keywords that are indexed in a database with other terms that could really be what you're looking for." BrainDamage is developing Noesis, a new approach to Internet searching based on natural thinking technology. Natural thinking technology puts the burden of understanding search queries on the search engine, enabling it to return more accurate results. Fine says Noesis gathers information and develops it, guided by the user, to reach a conclusion using the same patterns of logic and ideas that humans use. Noesis essentially teaches machines to understand what humans have in mind when they make a request. "Our system advances artificial intelligence far beyond where it is today, enabling computers to truly understand what is being asked of them--and to respond appropriately," Fine says.

2008 Technology Innovation Awards

The Wall Street Journal's 2008 Technology Innovation Award winners included Salesforce.com's Force.com software tool suite, which enables companies to build their own specially tailored business applications that are developed and delivered over the Internet. The cloud computing service enables companies to access computing power on an as-needed basis. Globalstar's Spot unit earned an award in the consumer electronics category for the Spot Satellite Messenger, a handheld device that transmits preprogrammed messages such as "I'm OK," along with users' whereabouts. Software that tests for security holes in new applications by searching for flaws in binary code netted an award for Veracode, and company co-founder Chris Wysopal says the method offers the accuracy of source code analysis without the need for disclosing proprietary source code. The winner in the network/Internet technologies category was Xsigo Systems for hardware and software that allows the replacement of physical cables in a data center with virtual connectors, each of which is capable of mimicking the performance of up to 14 separate cables. Dispersed Storage software from Cleversafe won for a technology that allows sensitive computer files to be stored more securely and reliably by slicing them up and sending the slices, which by themselves are unreadable to unauthorized parties, over the Internet to multiple storage locations on a network. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology professor Jane Royston says the software "could be an important part of Internet data storage systems." The winner in the wireless category was Tata Consultancy Services' mKrishi service, which can supply crop advice to farmers in rural India via cell phones using a combination of remote sensors, a voice-enabled text-messaging service, and a camera phone.

Web 3.0

Europe is in an excellent position to become the leader in Web 3.0 technology because of its focus on open and pro-competitive telecom networks and commitment to online privacy and security, says Viviane Reding, the European Commission's (EC's) commissioner for information society and media. "Web 3.0 means seamless 'anytime, anywhere' business, entertainment and social networking over fast reliable and secure networks," Reding says. "It means the end of the divide between mobile and fixed lines." She says there could be a 10-fold increase in the scale of the digital universe by 2015. The EC's consultation on the next generation of the Internet launched on Sept. 29 was accompanied by a roadmap. The report described social networking, online business services, nomadic services based on GPS and mobile TV, and smart tags using RFID as trends that would lead to Web 3.0. In a blog post, Vint Cerf welcomed Reding's stance on free and open networks and on open standards. "For Europe to keep up in the global online race, it needs to sprint ahead powered by an openness recipe encompassing a neutral network, users' rights, and open standards," Cerf wrote. "I'm delighted to see that Europe's policymakers stress the successful ingredients to promoting a robust, healthy Internet."

The Web's Future

Sir Tim Berners-Lee is helping to create the World Wide Web Foundation, a new organization that will certify Web sites it finds to be trustworthy and a reliable source of information. Berners-Lee says there needs to be a new system that will give Web sites a label for trustworthiness once they have proven to be a reliable source. "On the Web the thinking of cults can spread very rapidly and suddenly a cult which was 12 people who had some deep personal issues suddenly find a formula which is very believable," he says. "A sort of conspiracy theory of sorts and which you can imagine spreading to thousands of people and being deeply damaging." Berners-Lee and colleagues at the World Wide Web consortium examined simple ways of branding Web sites, but concluded that a whole variety of different mechanisms are needed. In addition to creating a trustworthiness rating, the World Wide Web Foundation also will strive to make it easier for people to get online. Currently, only 20 percent of the world's population has access to the Web. The foundation also will explore ways of making the Web more mobile-phone friendly, which will increase its use in Africa and other developing parts of the world where there are few computers but plenty of handheld devices. The foundation also will examine how the Web can be used to benefit those who cannot read or write. "We're talking about the evolution of the Web," Berners-Lee says. "When something is such a creative medium as the Web, the limits to it are our imagination."