Technology carries multiple meanings, ranging from solutions to specific problems, such as a Saturn rocket to send astronauts to the moon, to breakthroughs that transform society. Typically, the implications of a technology are not always evident at the start. Even such a farsighted individual as radio pioneer Guiglemo Marconi did not foresee public broadcasting and its commercial applications.
Today, we are more attuned to technology's transforming possibilities. But we have also become aware that mere existence of such important tools as the
personal computer or the Internet is not sufficient to realize their full potential. Equally indispensable is a host of critical enabling technologies from software and user interfaces to security and copyright protection. Those are at the core of this issue of IBM Research.
The cover story on mobile computing by Michael Sinclair, ranges over developments that will make laptops such as the IBM ThinkPad more
useful - and even usable in entirely new ways. One example is a new paperlike display that allows users to easily read detailed graphics, such as found in
maintenance manuals. An electronic manual, however, is not simply a replacement for a paper version. Not only can it be readily updated ; it can be linked to additional sources of information and can provide interactive help. In short, by surmounting a critical threshold - in this case legibility - an existing
technology can change the way people work.
The Internet is emerging as a similar agent of change.
In this issue, several articles and a new department ,"'Net
Results", are devoted to innovations designed to increase its usefulness.
The distribution of electronic content over the Internet or by other means has been hampered in many instances by the difficulty of protecting the copyright of authors
and publishers. In "Packaging Information for Superdistribution", Peter Benton describes a technique
for doing just that, using cryptographic envelopes, or
Cryptolopes.
In "Wired for Learning", Stephen Hall describes several education projects, two of which utilize the Internet to expand learning opportunities and to enhance communication among teachers, mentors, parents and students.
As information proliferates, improved techniques are needed to simplify and speed up the processes of cataloging and retrieval. In "Querying by Image
Content", Robert Finn writes about a way of interrogating a database of images by queries that use color, shape and texture to supplement traditional text-based searches.
Finally, in "Speeding of a Sort", Peter Gwynne describes an unexpected advance in the fundamental process of sorting lists of data, something that computers spend a great deal of their time doing.
In future issues of IBM Research, watch for stories on server technology, video on demand, advances in storage technology, techniques to dramatically speed up the execution of programs, new means of protecting digital data,
antivirus technology and more.
