The rise of context-aware computing | Hacker News Reader

The rise of context-aware computing

kent.io

20 pointskentf7 comments

I find concept videos like this often grossly over-simplify the problem of contextual computing, or even personalization for the matter.

I think today we already have plenty of context -- A paypass-equipped credit card can already provide context. And NFC-equipped phone, or even your wifi or bluetooth fingerprint. All of these things are already capable of providing the same level of uniqueness describing your person (Or at least arranging the transfer of enough uniqueness to qualify you).

I think the biggest problem that every entrepreneur always misses is: "How do we define context?"

"How do we organize it?" "How do we make sure that your personal information is open, tailored to you, and not limited in so much as Microsoft, Apple, or Facebook is willing to sell you that expression of identity which you will be LIMITED to being, as they see fit."

I think it comes down to a much more broad question that I don't think the industry has yet to answer at all.

What is the GRAMMAR of this context -- that will make it so fluid that everybody can integrate with it, seamlessly?

This is not something the industry has tried to answer, because we're still arguing over Apache's "Web of Things" vs a Json "Web of Things". We haven't even prescribed machine-understandable meaning to these free structured Apis yet -- let alone write a system that can automatically understand what a trunk is, how it works, and the entire context and meaning of a car.

This is not a move to context -- it's a limited gesture, and one that isn't based in the realm of context any more than a key understands a door.

If there only was some way of reading one's mind. You could create a device that holds your hand and hums your favourite tune as you cross the street, tell you when it's time to go pee-pee and tells you a cute story when you go to bed.

I hate the future where you can't drive a car because the cars drive themselves, you can't create a campfire (or even bbq) because the drones put it out and call the cops, can't flip the bird at anyone because the picture of that is instantly posted to your profile for your employer and clients to see, can't watch the games on the couch with a crate of beer because the tv watches you and forwards the data to your doctor, etc.

Wait a minute, we're nearly there already. Better book a trip to Bouvet...

It is easy to focus on what inevitable restrictions are more easily "enforced" with the technology (but those restrictions by and large already exist). I think it is far more interesting to focus on what they enable.

Ah yes, the semantic web. Remember when that was going to change everything? All it required was for everyone on the web to meticulously format their data into carefully structured databases. I can't imagine why it never gained much traction.

As an interesting side note, part of the reason of the success of google is that through the page rank algorithm they were able to extract highly important implicit data on the relative popularity, authoritativeness, and context of links rather than being forced to rely only on explicit data.

I will make the claim that in the future devices and systems which work on implicit context and metadata are going to be more successful at these sorts of high level pseudo-cognitive capabilities than anything which is dependent on people changing the way they do everything.

I started working on a project with a friend to use NFC in phones to start on this problem.

We where working on using NFC to auto lock and unlock your PC when you phone was on your desk hear a receiver. The idea originated from using the NFC to by pass the RFID door scanner so we didn't need our toggles to get into the office. Deciding we could get in troupe pissing around trying to bypass the security system we ended up working backwards to something easier... being the lock/unlock thing.

Unfortunately we stopped working on it when my friend went broke and his priorities changed (i.e. silly hobby projects don't pay the bills).

Would love to pick it up again some time in the future, we had lots of awesome discussions and ideas with this field. We where just investigating a braclet RFID to add to the system as a two factor authentication, so you needed more than just the phone do it. But thats roughly where we got up to.

This is so true, and it's such a hard problem.

AFAIK, only Google (with Google Now) is tackling it seriously. The Sixth Sense demo[1] showed where we should be going.

(The linked Nymi tool isn't particularly interesting IMHO. It's certainly not much more capable than things like the FitBit, or the much more capable sports oriented Garmin devices)

[1] http://www.ted.com/talks/pranav_mistry_the_thrilling_potenti...

I get a feeling that this is what Apple might be trying to accomplish with their rumoured iWatch. They've been hiring experts in heart rate measurement and other biometrics. There have also been rumours that the iWatch would integrate with home automation systems.

http://www.macrumors.com/2013/07/18/apple-taps-new-hires-in-...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com