Chapter 2 Link - The Product Research Project
One of Search’s research teams was working on a product line of human/machine interface devices to simplify the use of a new generation of computers that would soon be available to the general public. The ICs (integrated circuits or “chips”) in the new machines were so small that the entire motherboard, except for the add-ons, could fit on a thumbnail, making them incredibly fast. The computers, in fact, were so fast and so powerful that they could almost keep up with the average human mind, completing complex tasks before the user could move his or her hand to enter the next command.
Just a few years ago, 5 gigahertz machines were still a disappointment to serious graphics users and design engineers because at times they had to wait several seconds for operations to be completed. Reliable voice recognition had finally arrived and was in heavy use where silence was not a requirement; however, it wasn’t well-liked because many complained that they could think faster than they could talk. Also, designers and engineers said they didn’t verbalize their thoughts as they worked, and the need to go back and forth between verbalization and visualization slowed the creative process.
The new machines would not be rated in terms of clock speed but in CEPS (command entries per second), because the execution time would be insignificant. The first machines would be rated at 2.2 CEPS, well above current human command entry speeds using present human/machine interfaces, especially voice recognition. Designers and engineers wanted to think their way through the process. They wanted to picture the geometry in their minds and have it appear on their monitors instantly. Thus the challenge and the reason for the project.
The new interface that was to receive most of the attention looked very much like an ordinary mouse still in use at the turn of the century. This mouse, however, promised to be very, very different. The user would be able to merely grip the "Link," as it was called, and look at the display.
Yes. The company intended to design a system to transfer information directly from the brain, through the nervous system, to the hand and fingers and therefore to the Link. The Link was electrically connected to the computer’s power supply, but its sensors were optically coupled directly to the computer’s central processing unit.
Small successes had already been achieved, before the . . . “accident” occurred. Test subjects could mentally control a fish, on a type of screen saver, causing it to swim slower or faster and backwards. A magenta-colored screen could be changed to dark green; a square on the screen had even once been reformed, by an operator, into a poorly concentric circle; and some ASCII text could be consistently generated by an experienced user. The consensus was that within another year the concept work would be completed and a design begun. They felt that the research team was on the way to a successful project and an exciting new product. But now the Link project was dead.
Actually, the Link itself was just a very sophisticated set of sensors in a mouse-like housing, plus hardware and software onboard the computer to translate the signals from the Link into computer commands. That was all there was to it. The design team never considered it to be anything more. But after what happened, and after the “phenomenon” was repeated, Search management had to find out how such an incredibly strange experience was possible. The project was dead, but the research was very much alive.
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