Humans have always been the nexus of the information flow: information is gathered from the environment, analyzed, organized, communicated, and, often times, used to help guide our actions. Our need for more information has lead us to achievements such as the first transatlantic telegraph cable, which was laid in the mid-19th century, financed with private money.
In less than 150 years later, we find ourselves in the portable, personal, wireless device and internet age. I'm not sure about you, but I am confident that I have nearly all the information I want. We are saturated by information and there is a concern about the lack of growth opportunities in the information industry. Our industry, in particular, has always been focused on information technology, so should we be worried?
No, I believe we are being joined by new consumers of information that will soon outnumber us: robots. I refer to them in the broadest sense. Robots have been around for awhile, like the ones that manage your automobile's antilock-brake system (first developed for commercial use in 1970s). Now, humans are demanding greater convenience in their everyday life, and robots are becoming more sophisticated. Some recently available robotic technology includes devices that analyze your behavior and temperature preferences, and then automatically set the temperature in the office or house, or devices that can keep the floors clean. But soon, robots will relieve us of even more sophisticated information processing tasks, like driving a car or diagnosing an illness.
The increase in capabilities of embedded processors, and the analog devices that form the connection between the real world and the digital world, is resulting in the rapid technological advances that we see today in embedded systems. These systems are more and more regarded as “robots” with access to the vast resources of the cloud.
I wonder sometimes why automation is not being adopted faster… but looking at the literature and movies featuring robots, I see a deep-seated distrust of intelligent machines. My guess is that we fear losing direct control of our own environment.
On the positive side, robots will give us a better opportunity to do more meaningful things with our lives, and in order to benefit fully, we must overcome our emotional barriers against them and embrace them instead.
Learn more about TI’s automation solutions
Read more from TI’s “On the Fringe”
Buy the ISO5500 now at Mouser Electronics
This Post originally appeared in the On the Fringe blog on E2E.
For more On the Fringe blog posts, click here .
Advertisement
Learn more about Texas Instruments
