The phrase “smart technology” has been around for a long time. We have smart phones and smart televisions with functional capability that is massively enhanced by internet connectivity. We also talk about smart homes that scale up into smart cities. This hybrid between technology and the built environment promotes connectivity but with an additional twist – smart spaces monitor activity within their confines for the purposes of intelligent adaptation: to switch off lighting and heating if a space is uninhabited, to direct music from room to room as the inhabitant wanders through the house.
If smart technology is equated with enhanced connectivity and functionality, do those things translate into an increase of machine intelligence? In his 2007 book ‘The Design Of Future Things‘, Donald Norman defined the ‘smartness’ of technology with respect to the way in which it interacted with the human user. Inspired by J.C.R. Licklider’s (1960) definition of man-computer symbiosis, he claimed that smart technology was characterised by a harmonious partnership between person and machine. Hence, the ‘smartness’ of technology is defined by the way in which it responds to the user and vice versa.
One prerequisite for a relationship between person and machine that is cooperative and compatible is to enhance the capacity of technology to monitor user behaviour. Like any good butler, the machine needs to increase its awareness and understanding of user behaviour and user needs. The knowledge gained via this process can subsequently be deployed to create intelligent forms of software adaptation, i.e. machine-initiated responses that are both timely and intuitive from a human perspective. This upgraded form of human-computer interaction is attractive to technology providers and their customers, but is it realistic and achievable and what practical obstacles must be overcome?
