Chips with everything

As computers shrink drastically - in size and cost- they are poised to proliferate so rapidly that we may soon become unaware of their presence. Anand Parthasarathy explores the burgeoning business of `Pervasive computing' and the technology of embedded systems, that is driving it.

SOMETIMES TECHNOLOGY can change the way we speak and think. Forty years ago, the phrase that forms the headline of this column would have been understood in most parts of the English speaking world in only one way: it was the board displayed so often in that very British institution, the Fish 'n Chip shop, where you were served chips - fried potato fingers - with all the fish items on the menu. Indeed it was the title of a well known work of drama written in the mid sixties by the English playwright Harold Pinter.

Today, the phrase will be instantly recognised by most of us as referring to the computer chip - and `Chips with every thing' can only mean that you find a computer chip or processor every which way you look. And you would be right.

The use of computers grows daily - over a million Indians bought a personal computer for the first time in the fiscal year 1999- 2000. But as industry watchers are just realizing there is another more vigorous movement that is proliferating the use of computers without the users even being aware of it. This is the strange world of the embedded computer system where specially customized computer chips chug away beneath the hoods of a host of mundane items of mass consumption - from washing machines and fridges, cars and computers, cameras and wristwatches - even the garment you may soon wear.

IBM has coined a phrase to describe this activity. It calls it `pervasive computing'. Indeed a few years ago, it demonstrated a prototype of a computer chip embedded in the heel of a shoe which charged its batteries, like a dynamo every time the wearer walked and enabled data to be exchanged between two persons by a simple handshake. In a naughty reference to the Local Area Network or LAN, IBM called its system a Personal Area Network or PAN.

Last week at the global gathering of Linux users in San Jose, California (US) during the ``LinuxWorld'' Expo 2000, IBM reminded the audience about its continued interest in ``pervasive computing'': it demonstrated a version of Linux - the ``open'' operating system created by Finnish student Linux Torvalds - slimmed down to run on a wristwatch! The device communicates by wireless link with PCs, cellular phones and other platforms and receives email and pager messages. James Bond had nothing like this.

The company says it has no plans to commercialise a Linux watch - merely to show that Linux is capable of being ported in extremely slim versions. ``The use of linux in small pervasive devices makes it easy for students and researchers to add new features and develop applications'' says IBM's Takako Yamakura.

The first half of 2000 has seen a rush of such applications which seem to plug the mantra: ``Small is beautiful; Invisible is even better'':

On May Day, readers of a small American newspaper, the Charleston ( South Carolina) ``Post and Courier'' found themselves holding the world's first printed journal with embedded ``hyperlinks''. Many of the editorial and advertisement items in the issue had a small barcode printed alongside. Using a small pen shaped laser tool supplied free with the paper, readers could scan the barcode and feed it to their PC. If they went on the Internet, they were instantly linked to more pictorial - even audiovisual - detail. An advertiser would provide a full catalogue of the product line. A news item about a speech by a leader would link to a video clip of the speech....

In the three months since then, the technology has moved forward and this week Indian readers can sample it if they choose. The August 2000 issue of the American journal ``Popular Mechanics'' available on the newsstands in many Indian metros, provides what it calls a ``digital watermark'' with many ads and news items. It is a small coin sized icon featuring the letter ``D''. If your PC has a video camera attached to the monitor, you need only point the icon at the camera while going on the Net. The downloadable free software available at the site www.digimarc.com will connect you instantly to the website of the product for more details. A reader in Kochi tells me that he found an interesting advertisement for some models of UPS from the APC company. He was able to reach its website via the digital watermark and leave his address. Within a few days, the Indian office of APC sent him a packet of literature by courier. A full explanation of the technology is carried in that issue of Popular Mechanics.

The video camera that attaches to the PC is already being offered with many branded models of PC in India. Even those who prefer to get a PC custom-assembled can specify a camera and the additional cost is presently less than Rs 3000. The problem is - the number of cameras one ends up buying. The video camera is meant to sit on top of the PC monitor. But if you want to take pictures for direct processing on the PC, you need another digital camera. Intel recently solved this problem: Last week, they unleashed a ``Pocket PC Camera'', that can be used as a video camera while tethered to the PC - and can also be taken away to shoot Internet- ready pictures in the normal fashion. It has a built-in memory of 8 MB which is enough to shoot 128 pictures of 640 by 480 pixels resolution: good enough for Web use though rather small for printing. The software supplied with the $ 149 camera allows the user to send video messages by e- mail. In countries where it is legal, it can also be used as a video phone.

Getting customers to reach the Internet without necessarily owning a PC is the aim of many of the new pervasive devices. On August 15, PC maker Compaq and software leader Microsoft teamed to unveil a new ``Internet Home Appliance'' named ``iPaq''. Powered by Microsoft's Windows CE operating system, the small hand held gadget which is being released globally this week, provides one-touch access to the Internet and can be turned off and on like a TV set. Also included is a wireless keyboard, a modem and four Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports for latching on a mouse or printer. It weighs 2.6 Kg and features a small 10 inch diagonal flat screen. What is interesting is the marketing ploy: the selling price is slashed from $ 600 to $ 200 if you agree to use the MSN Internet service for three years at the normal American rate of around $ 20 per month for unlimited access.That is the whole point of embedded computing devices: you are not explicitly paying for the technology - only for what it helps you access.

The strategy was taken to its logical conclusion last year, when the Scandinavian refrigeration company Electrolux, makers of the ``Frigidaire'' launched a fridge in the North American market, with a free built in PC on the door. The system was equipped with a bar code reader which scanned the items inside - milk cartons, cornflakes, bread or whatever. When stocks were low, it alerted you and helped generate a shopping list. This could be sent by email to the neighbourhood supermarket, who soon sent a guy to your door, with fresh stocks. Was there a catch? The email went to a particular super market - not any shop of your choice - and it was the supermarket chain that was subsidising the cost of the PC in expectation of your future business!

The ubiquitous credit card or bank card has become ``smart'' of late - so smart, you no longer need the use of a special card reader to operate it. A `reader-free' Internet card was launched in New York on August 14, by a local company, ComSense Technologies. It is based on a proprietary `Comdot' technology which uses ultrasonics to link the card to a PC or similar machine. A button on the card is pressed, and a sound- based encrypted code generated by an embedded microchip, is sent out and authenticates the user via the microphone and sound card in the PC. Once the remote server verifies the identity of the sender ( the programme code is about 30 Kb), transactions like opening a personal page on the Net, or enabling credit card operation can be initiated.

The reach and spread of embedded system chips like these is limited by imagination rather than technology - and these days imagination seems to be boundless. Check out web resources dedicated to these areas like www.embeddedtechnology.com or www.portablelife.com and you will see some truly bizarre devices on display.

People are working on ``smart clothes``: garments with embedded chips which sense the outside temperature - and your sweat levels - and open vents on the sides of the clothing to let in some fresh air.

You can go to a conference these days, carrying just one pocket PC. Once there you can use its wireless link to reach your PC back home where you have stored your bulky presentation material on Powerpoint. Point the pocket PC at the projector and it uploads your package and flashes the slides you have made to illustrate your talk. Point it at the main PC of the lecture theatre and you can download other speakers' presentations, conference proceedings, even the boarding pass for your return journey by air (Swissair is the first airline to allow travelers to download boarding passes at home).

Does your PC needs a lot of storage space to take these goodies? No problem: Sony will make its ``memory sticks`` tiny chewing gun sized wads of memory up to a few hundred megabytes, which you can slot into your hand held device - or into that MP3 music player.

Need a cheap device to ``rip'' all your CDs or take music off the Net and convert them into the compressed MP3 format for hearing on the move. You may not have to wait for too long. Cirrus Logic, a Silicon Valley (US) company pioneered by Jamshedpur-born Suhas Patil has designed a revolutionary single chip solution called the ``Maverick'', just for this application.``Computer-ji ko lock kiya jaye?'' Not yet. There are a hundred more dizzying applications to come . And the guys who think them up and bring them to fruition will be the true crorepaties of the new millennium.

Blueprint for a `Cool town'

Dr GITA Gopal is the Director of a forward looking research programme at Palo Alto, California, headquarters of Hewlett Packard, which aims to bring people, places and things together using the World Wide Web of the Internet. It was her concept of a seamless ``appliance computing environment`` that finally became the new HP initiative being called ``CoolTown''.

In India recently, Dr Gopal spoke about her ``webcentric'' concept of a future wired world. The heart of CoolTown is a tiny slab of programme called ``eSquirt'' - which allows hand held devices: mobile phones, wristwatches, pagers, to access rich Web content, by ``squirting'' a pointer at the site. Infrared is used to do this. On the Web are sites which send out ``Beacons'' i.e. they broadcast their address or URL. Your hand held device can receive these beacons and access Web pages directly.

The software is presently available for free download at www.cooltown.hp.com and HP has no immediate intention of commercialising it . They can see that unless it is freely available it will never become ``pervasive''. HP's employees use CoolTown to call up the Shuttle bus (which puts out a beacon) and check from their mobile phones, where the bus has reached. In a book store equipped with CoolTown, you can home on to the books of your taste.

The sample applications may seem trivial but the potential in distance education in a country like India is very promising, Dr Gopal feels. The programming language used by HP to achieve all this is called ``Chai'' - yes the Hindi word for tea. The jokey message seems to be: If Sun Microsystems could come up with Java ( a brand of Coffee), we give you Chai!

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