Google’s Director of Engineering, Scott Huffman, sees the future of Google search as handsfree. Speaking to The Independent, Mr. Huffman foresees users in the future asking their home questions without ever typing anything into a search engine. From what I gather it seems like a large scale Google Now implementation (which is probably an over simplification of what it truly is). Google has recently released the Chrome extension “Voice Search”, which allows users to search Google without having to type in the request. Simply say “OK Google” and ask your question. Some questions will be answered by Google with a voice response while others will pull up web results.
I can certainly see Google expanding Google Now and Voice Search functionality because it makes perfect sense. I can also see future homes being outfitted with a core computer that kind of acts like Iron Man’s Jarvis. The home will essential be run by the computer and it will learn its owners behaviors, likes, dislikes, etc., etc. This is where the “microphones in the ceiling” would come into play. Every room would have to have some sort of sound receiver so that the computer could hear you talk to it and ask your questions. Each room would have a monitor or monitors to display the data to you if needed. And that data would even extend to your peripherals like smartphones, Glass, tablets, even cars.
Scott Huffman
“Imagine I can say to a microphone in the ceiling of the room ‘ Can you bring up a video of the highlights of yesterday’s Pittsburgh Steelers game and play it on a TV in the living room?’ and it works because the Cloud means everything is connected,” he says.
“I could ask my Google ‘assistant’ where we should have lunch, that serves French food and isn’t too expensive? Google will go ‘ Ok, we’ll go to that place’ and when I get in my car it should already be navigating to that restaurant. We’re really excited by the idea of multiple devices being able to talk to each other.”
The other more controversial part of this report from The Independent is microchipping users. According to The Independent, Google believes it can give users the results they are looking for by sending the data directly to the brain via microchip. The Independent reports that research into controlling wheelchairs via embedded microchips is already underway. After reading through the piece it seemed to me that The Independent took Mr. Huffman’s statement out of context and ran with it. They quote Mr. Huffman as saying:
Scott Huffman
“I don’t have a microchip in my head – yet.”
This is at the very beginning of the report and Mr. Huffman mentions nothing more about microchips in brains afterwards. Instead Mr. Huffman seemed to talk about making search more intelligent and more integrated into the “things” around us. Mr. Huffman’s role at Google is to help Google deliver a more human response to the user. This business of microchipping brains seemed to be more of a headline grabber than actual truth. Hit the link below and read the report for yourself. It has some great quotes and good info on what Google and Mr. Huffman are working on. But the article is seriously killed by the implication that Google wants to microchip its users.
Source: The Independent
Related articles
- #Google’s future: microphones in the ceiling and microchips in your head (independent.co.uk)
- Ceiling microphones and inner-body microchips: Google engineer predicts company’s next steps (fromthetrenchesworldreport.com)
- Transhumanism Here We Come! Google Wants Microphones In Your Ceiling & Microchips In Your Head (streetdemocracy.wordpress.com)
- Google Wants Microphones In Your Ceiling & Microchips In Your Head (rinf.com)
Last Updated on January 23, 2017.
