Technology and the Future - Essay Example

? of the of the of the Technology and the Future Analysis The onset of the essay is an analysis ofthe Novel feed by M. T. Anderson with respect to our main theme that is, “Does technology change culture, or does culture change technology?” The novel revolves around the state of the planet Earth in the future. It focuses on a few youngsters and their lives in order to demonstrate that pattern of human life as it would be shaped in the years to come. Titus is the name of the youngster who is the center of attention. The youngsters have been shown to have possessed a chip embedded into their brains. More than seventy percent of the human race is subjected with this ‘feed’. The feed may very well be referred to as a combination of the present day internet highly dominated by advertisements and interacting suggesting bodies. It is like a virtual network that governs the human mind and has taken over the stream of thoughts that arises into it. Every person’s feed is personalized in line with his stream of emptions and preferences. The liking and disliking of every individual is embedded into his feed and he is constantly being prompted by suggesting thoughts and directives from the feeds about promotional products and proposed actions alike. Whenever a thought is generated by the brain it is instantly taken over by the feed and flooded with suggestion regarding that thought from it. Thus, the feed in reality governs the entire individual. The reality of feed and its effect upon the individual becomes known to the youngsters when they are on a visit to the moon when they are attacked by those running the anti-feed campaign. They hack the feeds of the individuals present there resulting in the disabling of the feeds for a couple of days. It is in those days that the actual essence of life becomes clear to the youngsters. The Earth has become a place where there is no presence of natural habitat. Water has exhausted and natural reproduction has ceased. The only reproduction that does exist is via in-vitro fertilization. The novel shows how the advancements in technology would change the shape of the human society entirely. Thus it may well be asserted that the change in the human society would be only by the virtue of the advancement in technology. The governing bodies behind the Feed have shaped the society by inculcating into the minds of youngsters what may seem suitable to them. PRESENT TECHNOLOGY The present day technology of Human Computer Interaction via Eye Tracking is at its initial phase. It is proposed that in the years to come the technology of eye tracking would be able to transmit all the proposed commands to a computing device only by a single glance. That is to say that, transmitting only one instance of a single eye glance input would transmit the final objective to the system. The user would not have to interact personally with each interface one by one in order to reach the final product. Only a single eye glance would fulfill all input requirements and would result in the desired output. WHAT IS EYE TRACKING? The efficiency of each computing system is highly dependent on its usability in accordance with the requirements of the human begins using it. Thus the more an interactive system is based upon user input, the better it becomes and the more useful it is for the stakeholders concerned with it. Human-Computer Interaction thus holds immense importance in the development and error checking of computing systems that are currently in use and also for the ones that are in the pipeline. There are a number of means through which inputs from user can be taken into account. One of these extensive ranges of methods is Eye-Tracking. INTRODUCTION TO EYE TRACKING Formally defining Eye-Tracking , “A research method that determines what part of an advertisement consumers look at, by tracking the pattern of their eye movements.” (Lake) Thus, eye tracking can be narrated as a means whereby the movements of a human eye are recorded while he is reading some text or is merely looking at something. The frequency with which a particular spot on the screen is observed is noted and calculations are then used to assess the usability of a particular thing with the observation that it has been assigned with. More specifically said, the eye fixation patterns and the eye movements of the user are recorded by sensitive recording equipment. HISTORY OF EYE TRACKING Historically, Eye tracking’s use in Human Computer Interface can be traced back to the last decade of the 20th century. The gaze of the human eye was used to extract information from it by Robert Jacob. He used it as a mode of input for desktop computing. DOES IT SERVE ITS PURPOSE? Eye tracking has extensively been in use since its advent. It is used in passive and active modes both. How that is done is narrated in the following few lines: Passive MODE This mode assists greatly in the assessing of behavioral patterns. For example during simulation lectures for pilots and rocket fliers the movements of the eyes of the learners gives an idea of the learning patterns of individuals as well as their concentration paradigms. The creation of individualized reading aids is made possible by assessing when a person is reading and when the gaze of the person has stopped on a particular spot for longer than a normal duration of time. Buyers attention can be noted down in order to assist market researchers. Active MODE On screen keyboards and mouse use the data collected via eye tracking in order to assess the next command that is being given by the user. This is useful specifically in the case of such systems being in the use of disabled people. Patients in clinics/hospitals may be provided with eye tracking facility enabled systems that would record their input whenever patients cannot speak, touch or move. However, there are certain constraints to the use of eye tracking that can be summarized as follows: CONSTRAINTS Physiological hindrances: Enough light may not be reflected via iris of the eye. Eye lashes or eye lids may be covering the iris of the eye. Eye glasses or eye contacts may be hindering the execution of eye tracking. SUMMARIZING THE CURRENT STATE OF EYE-TRACKING TECHNOLOGY The present studies and researches conducted in the field of Eye Tracking are limited to the use of eye-tracking as an input medium as discussed and narrated earlier in the text. The time and location movements of fixations and Saccades of the participating individuals’ eye movements are the most commonly used measurements that are used to record eye tracking. When attempting to evaluate at the physiological level, the fixation and their timings and the saccades and their frequencies can be calculated along with the arousal’s changes. The number of fixations and saccades, on the perceptual level, play the most integral role in the processing of information. ‘Fixation Durations’ and the paths of the eye scan determine user’s interests in the respective elements in user interfaces. Reportedly, there have been about 31 eye tracking techniques to date. These techniques are used to evaluate the distribution of information. CURRENT CHALLENGES The first and the foremost challenges that eye tracking poses at present is that whether the data that is being collected via it is reliable enough to be considered as authentic for future usability. Another challenge at hand is that the large amounts of data that is being collected via eye tracking should be put to use. Since the size of the data is so large and it is constantly pouring in, it is a big challenge to analyze the data and to put it into summarized compact forms for future referencing. The limitations of current prevalent technologies are the third major challenge nowadays. The currently available software does not possess the required capabilities to accurately analyze the data obtained via eye tracking. This may lead to the inference that since the analyzing tools for data obtained via eye tracking are insufficient, so the recording equipment used for recording the eye tracking related data may also not be up to the mark. This may led to the discarding of large amounts of data. FUTURE OF EYE TRACKING Smcmullen (2011) quotes the importance of eyes in the following words: “As the eyes are the fastest moving part of the human body, this interface would be of great benefit to virtual & augmented reality systems as well as those requiring very large screens as the ability to jump the cursor to the point of focus eliminates the need for unnecessary scrolling of a mouse or trackpad over long distances.” (smcmullen) It is proposed that eye tracking would be the next most widely used phenomenon in computing. 3D modeling, visualization and artificial intelligence would merge to form the virtual imaging of a computers interface in accordance with what a human being’s stream of thoughts would be at the moment. The personal computers would only be as large as a microchip that may be worn as an attachment to the skin of the human being. The pulses of the human body would be passing through the computing device attached to the body thus developing coordination between the brain and the device. Every time sensory nerves would transmit the thoughts of the requirements of the human being a holographic image of the desired interface would be displayed that would display end product variations as possible options. The user would only look at the desired output that he wants from a specific processing paradigm and the look would transmit enough information for the computer to know what route the user wants to take in order to get to the output, what specification he wants to opt for during the process etc. Thus only with a single look the output would be determined with each and every specification. This would indeed be usability at its heights. Presently it can be evaluated that such a technology would be most beneficent if deployed in medical procedures. The use of external tools would be limited to the least and this would in turn limit the entrance of dirt and germs into the organism. Lives of disabled individuals would also transform immensely as all their thoughts would be readily readable and miscommunication and other disabilities would no longer hinder them in living like other common men. WORKS CITED: Lake, Laura. Eye Tracking. About.com. 2011. Web. 30th November, 2011. Tobii Eye Tracking. Eye Tracking History. Diigo.com. 3 October 2011. Web. 30 October 2011. Pool, Alex. Eye Tracking in Human Computer Interaction and Usability Research: Current Status and Future Prospects. Lancaster University UK. 2010. Web. 2nd December, 2011. < http://www.alexpoole.info/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/PooleBall-EyeTracking.pdf> Glenstrup, J Arne, Nielson, E, Thio. Improved Eye Trcking Techniques. Diku. N.d. Web. 2 December 2011< http://www.diku.dk/hjemmesider/ansatte/panic/eyegaze/node30.html> Business Wire. Eye Tracking and EEG: Perfectly Combined. Neuroscience 2011. 9 November 2011. Web. 2 December 2011 < http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20111109005918/en/Eye-Tracking-EEG-Perfectly-Combined> Anderson, M. T., and David Aaron Baker. Feed: . New York: Listening Library, 2003. Read More