In search of personable computing
Alex "Sandy" Pentland is on a quest to make personal computers more personable.
The psychologist and computer scientist says he dabbles in most cutting-edge technologies and often arrives at a rather dismal diagnosis -- "irritating," "obnoxious," "not quite right."
Pentland, who heads the Human Dynamics research group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, imagines a future in which technologies are like executive secretaries -- creatures that anticipate their owner's every need. "Something that is familiar, that is our advocate, our defender, our property," Pentland said.
Such versions of today's beepers and cellphones would actively work to connect and help people in a busy world where the traditional social safety net -- family and friends -- are often fragmented or scattered.
Cellphones of the future would know not to interrupt when a person is having a great time with friends; memory eye glasses could flash reminders when someone misplaces keys; two people sitting near each other on the subway might be paged and told they are compatible.
Now, "we're at such a bad state," he said. "Current technology is isolating because it forces you off into the corner by yourself. Cellphones used to keep in touch with family have people running around talking into thin air like schizophrenics."
Pentland's fascination with the human side of technology became consuming some time during his extended undergraduate career at the University of Michigan. Somewhere between plowing through the entire graduate program of courses in math and computer science, taking time off to work on a farm, and running a satellite lab with a $250,000 budget, Pentland realized that he wanted to make machines that could see like humans do.
Since he began his graduate work at MIT in 1981, the machine vision project has turned into an even more complicated project -- to build machines with manners and social skills.
Pentland grew up in an enclave of relatives in Ann
"When I talk to my wife, I would like to have what we laughingly call a jerk-o-meter," said Pentland, who now lives in Lexington, and has two sons, Ian, 8, and Dylan, 5. A message could appear on his phone after a conversation with his wife, Tracy, rating him on how well he listened and responded.
By designing machines that are no longer blind to the ineffable human qualities of emotion, interest, and mood, Pentland hopes not to replace face-to-face communication as some of technology's critics fear, but to "supercharge" those encounters.
Although many of his potential solutions to that problem sound farfetched, none is far off. Prototypes already exist in his third-floor lab, and one -- a
Pentland has already designed a wearable device that can send alerts to friends and relatives if the person stops moving around or appears to be avoiding social contact. Such a system does the double duty of reminding people to keep in touch, and keeping tabs on someone at risk for suicide.
Most recently, he claims to have discovered a simple, scientific way to measure social connection. The odd thing, he said, is that he doesn't need to know what people are saying or anything about their assets, personalities, or history: All he needs is to listen to their tone of voice and speech patterns.
By listening carefully to the tone of an interaction between people, it is possible to predict who will exchange phone numbers at a bar or business cards at a meeting with 80 percent accuracy, he said.
In the end, this idea -- like many others -- has a foundation in the fantasy and science fiction that Pentland has always enjoyed. Much of the Isaac Asimov fan's research lies along this blurry line between science fiction and reality: Clothes that sense thoughts and change style or color; machines that can sense moods and act appropriately; cellphones that can alert someone that they're beginning to act depressed before they even realize it.
"It comes to be a lot like magic."
Carolyn Y. Johnson can be reached at cjohnson@globe.com.
