Business Today – August 25, 2019

ELON MUSK IS AT IT AGAIN.

His start-up called Neuralink is

exploring the ultimate in the

brain-machine interface (BMI)

• humans controlling comput-
  ers with their thoughts. By way
  of proof of concept, a chip with
  3,000 electrodes, all fitted with
  an array of ultra-thin polymer
  threads, has been developed
  so that it can be implanted into
  the brain by a robot. Once that
  is done, the device can analyse
  neuron activities in a specific
  area and stimulate a limited set
  of neurons by using artificial
  intelligence (AI). But the chip
  would, by no means, control or
  affect the entire brain. Details of
  how the brain-technology con-
  nection takes place are sketchy.
  But Musk hinted at a Bluetooth-
  like activity and said that “a
  monkey has been able to control
  the computer with his brain”.
  Neuralink is currently waiting for
  regulatory approval to start trials
  on humans.
  The idea, for now, is to
  ensure that people with seri-
  ous neurological disorders can
  control gadgets and machines,
  thus empowering them to ‘talk’
  to and participate in the world
  around them. But as always,
  Musk’s long-term goal is some-
  what fantastic – a symbiosis of
  human brain, AI and computer
  to create ‘superhuman cogni-
  tion’. It will take a long time,
  though, as Neuralink has taken a
  few baby steps towards the stuff
  sci-fi is made of. But those steps
  have already startled the world
  and made us wonder about a
  future when both humans and
  machines could thought-control
  each other.

common form of interaction across

distances in the not-so-distant

future. Microsoft had previously

demonstrated the use of holograms

for telepresence. But photorealistic

holograms rendered in 3D, as in the

case of White, will enable more real-

istic participation and interaction.

However, the technology is not

yet ready for the mass market. The

HoloLens alone costs over $4,000

and requires other contribut-

ing technologies to work in sync.

Microsoft has been at the forefront

of mixed reality (MR) research for

some years now and intends to

leverage the entire bunch of tech-

nologies for specific use cases across

industries. Airbus, for example, has

started testing MR solutions with

Microsoft. The aeronautics com-

pany has identified 300 use cases

where holographic and other MR

solutions can be applied to achieve

its aircraft production goals. These

solutions can be used to help work-

ers get instructions and information

while they are on the job. In fact, be

it product design, construction or

architecture, communication or en-

tertainment, interactive holograms,

which can be touched and manipu-

lated, will take things to an entirely

new level of precision, efficiency and

creativity. The HoloLens headset

also offers eye-tracking that can

sense what you are looking at and

produce relevant information along

with automatic scrolling as you read

on. Users can log in via iris recogni-

tion, making information-sharing

among multiple co-workers easy

and secure.

August 25 I 2019 I BUSINESS TODAYI 105

NOW THOUGHT-

CONTROL YOUR

COMPUTER

FUTURE TECH

BE IT PRODUCT DESIGN,

COMMUNICATION OR

ENTERTAINMENT, INTERACTIVE

HOLOGRAMS, WHICH CAN BE

TOUCHED AND MANIPULATED,

WILL USHER IN A NEW ERA

EOPLE ATTENDING MICROSOFT
Inspire in July this year must have
wondered whether they were watch-
ing a ‘Beam me up, Scottie’ type of
scene from Star Trek. It started when
Julia White, Corporate Vice Presi-
dent of Azure Marketing, showed off
what the HoloLens 2 (mixed reality)
headset could do in sync with other
cutting-edge technologies. The result
was jaw-dropping.
After donning the headset, White
explained how frequently she had to
travel on work assignments and the
big problem she faced – she could not
always speak the local tongue. White
then held out her palm and a green
mini-me materialised on it. Next, she
commanded the hologram to scale,
and within seconds, a life-size clone
of White stood on the stage, dressed
in the same outfit (it was created at
Microsoft’s Mixed Reality Capture
Studios). Of course, the world had
seen ultra-realistic holograms before,
even those developed by Canadian
scientists which could be seen with-
out special gadgets like headsets. The
scientists called the system TeleHu-
man2, but White’s virtual double
was way better. It started to deliver a
keynote in Japanese, moving as she
does in real life and emulating her
tones and vocal inflexions. True, the
hologram did not lip-sync too well
and sounded a little more muted and
sober than the real White. But it did
a good job considering that White
does not speak Japanese, and the en-
tire keynote was machine-translated.
The entire effect was made pos-
sible by using 3D-capture technol-
ogy, Azure Translate, neural text-
to-speech and artificial intelligence
(AI). The video is freely available
online, and viewers can see how such
‘holoportation’ may turn out to be a