Living Information

JAMES HATTORI, CNN Correspondent: In Cambridge, where hallowed schools and rich traditions attract the brightest young minds, AT&T Laboratory is on the cutting edge.
PROF.
ANDY HOPPER, Managing Director, AT&T Labs: Cambridge is a great place. You walk down the street and almost anybody you grab has a Ph.D. and is able to do something very special.

HATTORI: Nothing special when you first enter the labs, until you check in with reception.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you wear this at all times so we can locate you in the building?

HATTORI: Like this?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

HATTORI: This building, it turns out, is fully mapped and full of bats. What is this I’m wearing?

PETE STEGGLES, AT&T Labs: OK, we call this an active bat.

HATTORI: Bat, as in small winged mammals that fly using ultrasonic waves to avoid obstacles. AT&T’s active bats are part of a project called sentient or perceptive computing. All 55 employees at the labs wear the pager-sized devices, which constantly emit ultrasonic signals picked up by a network of sensors built into the ceiling.

STEGGLES: It’s actually relatively simple. There’s nothing tremendously expensive or complex in it.

HATTORI: Behind the scenes, though, complex computer programs continuously measure distances between bats and sensors and plot the location of each employee, even the direction they’re facing.
And they don’t just communicate, they can control nearly every device in the office. This document scanner recognizes users when they approach. No switches, just hold the bat in front of a sign and push a button. A little later, the scanned picture is automatically deposited in your document file. And it doesn’t really matter which computer. All of them can be instantly personalized.

STEGGLES: So, if I click my bat in front of this screen, then my personal desktop appears instantly on the screen. Then if I walk over to this other screen, then I can make it appear on this one as well.

HATTORI: Even the phone system can locate you.

STEGGLES: My bat itself makes a little ringing sound, toodum toodum. And then if I want to take the call then, then I can just click one of these buttons and the call is immediately sent to the nearest phone to me.

HATTORI: The original idea for the bat dates back about a dozen years when the staff first moved into this building and no one knew where anyone else was. The first system relied on badges like these that used infrared signals. But the team wanted something more accurate.
AT&T’s current version, with hundreds of sensors, can pinpoint a bat’s location to within one cubic inch. But researchers can’t yet put their finger on how this technology will be used in the real world.

HATTORI: Something else there, a concern that continuously tracking workers smacks of Big Brotherism. It’s like being watched, isn’t it? A bit.

STEGGLES: Yeah, hopefully by things that want to help you.

HATTORI: AT&T researchers say the system includes privacy safeguards, and point out their active bats are less intrusive than other monitoring devices.

HOPPER: Ultimately, this sort of technology, you can sabotage, like you can put in a cup of tea, and it stops. Whereas the camera, which you can’t see, which in the distance is recognizing your face is a completely different type of technology, and you may not have any control over that.

HATTORI: There’s time to work out any concerns. Projects here usually take five to 10 years to develop. Ideas that early on may seem, well, rather batty.

HOPPER: Well, I think it is important to have fun, to buck the trend and to make something tangible. So yes, I’d call that crazy. I’d call that wacky. Don’t do the obvious. Do the less obvious.

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