There is a prediction about "Proactive Computing".
Is this possible or just a wishful thinking?
Instead of waiting for us to feed them information, computers are anticipating our needs and taking action on our behalf.
Welcome to the world of proactive computing. A world where billions of sensors are embedded within our environment, capturing data to churn out answers even before questions are asked. According to Dr David Tennenhouse, vice-president of the Corporate Technology Group and director of Research at Intel, proactive computing is borne out of the burgeoning explosion of computers around us.
Interactive computing, he explained, started in the 1960s and that involved individuals interacting one-on-one with computers. But as one starts to deal with multiple computers, overloading becomes a problem.
"If you have 100 computers, you can't afford to spend your whole life telling all the computers what you want them to do. You may continue to have two or three computers to interact with but the other 98 computers had better be proactive," Dr Tennenhouse said.
The first step in making proactive computing a reality is to "get physical": linking the computers directly to the information and processing that information to anticipate needs.
"For 40 years, we have been building the virtual world," he said. "Now, we have to connect the virtual and the physical worlds together."
One of the key enabling technologies in a proactive world is a smart sensor network. Embedded sensor nodes, known as "motes", extract data and channel it automatically to surrounding motes in a wireless network. The aggregated data is then sent to a computer for analysis.
Most of the sensors that exist today are not networked, observed Dr Tennenhouse.
The key step is to add the network. Then, you can collect the information and use it to improve productivity.
"By combining networking with machine-learning technologies, the computational data generated can anticipate what people might want to do with that information," he said.
For example, if the computer can anticipate the 10 things that are most likely to happen, then it can go and prepare for all of the 10 things immediately to eliminate unnecessary waiting.
Proactive computing can be applied to all segments of society.
For example, manufacturing systems can anticipate when equipment may break down so it can be fixed before that happens. In agriculture, proactive computing can be used to anticipate how much water or pesticide is needed and when to harvest the crops.
"Before proactive computing, you have people whose jobs were to carry a computer around and take readings," said Dr Tennenhouse.
"With proactive computing, they are free to do something else. Human beings should not be spending time just carrying computers around."
If you can get the data connected automatically and infer from that data what people are going to want next, you can get much better utilisation of your assets and higher productivity from your employees, he added.
Intel has been busy getting sensor networks out to customers and doing field trials. It has started home healthcare trials in the United States, where people with cognitive decline make use of intelligent motion sensors and cameras to manage their daily activities.
Dr Tennenhouse said: "For companies, it's about productivity gains. For society, it's about the quality of life"
