2001 and beyond

McGill professor Jeremy Cooperstock is designing the technology you'll be using five years from now

by PHILIP PREVILLE

 Even though he works on the cutting edge of computer innovation, Jeremy Cooperstock refuses to predict the future. He says science fiction writers are far better at it than he is. "Arthur C. Clarke was totally right in 2001: a Space Odyssey," he says. "We now have computers that play chess, computers that read lips. The only thing we don't have are computers with emotional complexity.

 "Even Star Trek is starting to look realistic. We don't have transporters, but we have wireless communications. And there are teams of researchers working on the rearrangement of molecules, which is similar in principle to the food replicator.

 "Just don't ask me what the world will be like 20 or 50 years from now. I'm more concerned with what's going to happen five years from now."

 That's because Cooperstock is one of those people who actually brings those more immediate possibilities to fruition. As a professor with McGill University's Centre for Intelligent Machines, he's a hands-on creator and developer of the technology we'll all be using in the very near future.

 Remotes, robots and holodecks

 His list of ongoing projects is impressive.

 He and his students are designing a new and improved TV-VCR remote control, activated through voice recognition, which would control all home entertainment functions with a minimum number of buttons.

 They have created some of the most advanced and sophisticated visual-recognition software in the world, allowing digital cameras to pick up on a moving human being and follow it around the room. Soon, he says, cameramen will no longer be required for hockey and football broadcasts.

 They've created the world's most sophisticated electronic classroom, with direct broadcasting live to the Web.

 They've created a computerized "door attendant," which has been installed outside Cooperstock's office. Walk past the wall-mounted computer screen and it comes to life, asking you if you want to schedule an appointment.

 They're working on designing what Cooperstock calls a "virtual environment." Asked to explain what it is in layman's terms, he resorts to a Star Trek metaphor of his own. "It's like a holodeck," he says.

 And they are programming the Aibo, Sony's pet-dog robot, to play soccer against other teams of Aibos programmed by other universities around the world at the annual RoboCup competition. That not only means programming them to dribble, pass, shoot and score; it also means teaching them to recognize what a soccer ball looks like, not to mention goal posts. Last year's competition was somewhat underwhelming. "Not a single Aibo team scored a goal," says Cooperstock, "but our dogs were best at orienting themselves, figuring out where they were on the field, and finding the ball."

 The end of computers

 For a guy who's so good with computers, Jeremy Cooperstock hates them.

 For one thing, they're unreliable. "I can't find a manufacturer who will deliver a fully functional computer to me," he says. His story is the same as any other plebe who's ever bought a computer, but it's especially important for him because he's pushing the limits of the technology, and he needs it to work. "Either the motherboard is wonky, or the video card is bad, or the network card's not working, or something else is wrong. In my lab, all the computers are constantly opened up and we're always trading parts back and forth."

 But his distaste for computers runs deeper than the everyday annoya of dysfunctional parts. If Jeremy Coopersock has a visionary mantra, it's this: make computers disappear altogether.

 "I think computers are cumbersome to work with," he explains. "Despite all the hype, they're still counter-intuitive. Whenever you want to make a computer do something, you have to sort your way through menus or memorize a bunch of key commands."

 To give an example: architects still draw their designs on paper, then draw them a second time on the computer using drafting software. Cooperstock's response: "What we really need is a drafting table with a computer in it. Draw a line with a pencil and a ruler, and the computer registers it. Erase it, and the computer registers that too."

 His orientation explains his intense hatred of all those damn buttons on remote controls, which have become far more complicated than QWERTY keyboards. "Using a TV shouldn't be that difficult to use, and it doesn't have to be," he says.

 The only thing keeping him from making it simpler, he says, is more robust voice-recognition software. Current voice-recognition programs work, but only if everyone speaks as clearly as Captain Picard. "I need software that can recognize both male and female voices, that can handle children's voices, that can make sense of different regional accents. Once I have that, I can reduce any remote control to one or two buttons." l