Today's News, Tomorrow's Lesson

Richard Vaughan

Google is not content with producing computers that we wear like
glasses, such as Google Glass: it is now envisioning computers that we
fit inside our heads as well. The tech giant’s engineering director,
Scott Huffman, has said that he imagines a time in the not too-distant
future where Google users can fit a microchip into their brain and
collect data on the go.

The technologist said that he could see typing search queries into
Google’s search box becoming a thing of the past and that screens as we
know them might soon become obsolete, because of wearable devices such
as Google Glass. But he also predicts a point where people will just
have to think of a command and it will be carried out by a Google chip
in the brain. Research is already making inroads in this area, with
disabled wheelchair users thinking of commands that steer the chair.

“If you think hard enough about certain words, they can be picked up
by sensors fairly easily. It’ll be interesting to see how that
develops,” Mr. Huffman said.

The idea throws up all sorts of philosophical ideas about
independent thought, the privacy of the mind and the amount of data we
provide to big multinational internet firms.

Mr. Huffman also sees a role for fitting microphones in the ceilings
of homes that will respond to voice commands, like computers on board
spaceships in science fiction, which would connect users to their
phones or tablet devices.

“Imagine I say, ‘Can you bring up a video of the highlights of
yesterday’s Pittsburgh Steelers game and play it on TV in the living
room?’ and it works because the cloud means everything is connected,”
Mr. Huffman told The Independent this morning.

The engineer leads a team within Google that works on making the
search engine more flexible and human to reflect real-life interactions.

The new technology would mean that a user would not have to take out
their phone to set a reminder for them to do something: they could just
speak a command.

“Like a great personal assistant, it will interrupt you and say,
‘You’ve got to leave now.’ It will bring you the information you want,”
Mr. Huffman said.