Smart rooms, smart clothes

To change inanimate objects like offices, houses, cars, or glasses into smart, active helpmates they need to have perceptual intelligence. They need to begin paying attention to people and the surrounding situation the way another person would. That way they can begin to adapt their behavior to us, rather than the other way around. We have developed computer systems that can follow people's actions, recognizing their faces, gestures, and expressions. Using this technology we have begun to make "smart rooms" and "smart clothes" that can help people in day-to-day life, have the potential to recognize people, understand their speech, allow them to control computer displays without wires or keyboards, communicate by sign language, and warn them they are about to make a mistake.