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Computer City
'Ken Sakamura
Ken Sakamura
In the TRON Project we designed and built an experimental house, completed in 1988 in Tokyo. This was a totally computerized house, with over 1,000 computers and sensors built into it.
If a room needs to be made cooler, the first choice is not to turn on the air conditioner. Before that, the sensors check the outdoor weather conditions. If a cool breeze is blowing, the TRON House automatically opens its glass panels. If it starts to rain, the panels close automatically and information is sent to the air conditioner, which keeps the room at the desired temperature.
The multitude of computers built into the house enable it to make overall judgements, providing an optimal environment for the people living in it – this is the vision of the future that can be seen in the TRON House. Progress in microcomputers and other electronics technologies is bringing that vision to reality. When things of all kinds are embedded with computers, they become intelligent objects. In the future as we envisage it, networks, enabling them to cooperate in support of human living will connect these intelligent objects. The aim of the TRON Project is to establish the infrastructure of technologies necessary for realizing such an "all-pervasive computer age".THE TRON PROJECT The first computers were so huge as to occupy an entire room. By the 1970's, advances in microelectronics made possible the microprocessor, incorporating all the computer circuitry on a single LSI chip. While the early ones had only limited capacity, today a super CPU able to perform over 100 million operations per second can fit in the palm of the hand. What's more, some models require only the amount of power available in a small battery cell. As computers have become smaller and cheaper, microchips are starting to be incorporated in all kinds of things. This trend began more than ten years ago, as computer chips came to be used in VCRs, automobile engine controllers, and telephones with answering machine functions. It will not end here, however. Before long, microchips will be found not just in electronics products but in all sorts of ordinary objects surrounding us.
Just as computers have become much smaller, mechanical parts are showing signs of a similar trend, through micromachining and other technologies. Included here are sensors – not just simple electronic sensors but mechanical sensors such as barometers – as well as valves, motors and the like. If such parts also become available in large numbers and cheaply, we may see computers, sensors and actuators realized on just one or two chips.
Everything in the house from doors to ceilings will surely come to be microchip-embedded, and also clothing, perhaps even glasses. The age of "all-pervasive computers", when all the things around us become intelligent objects, will inevitably come.
What kinds of computers will best serve the needs of such an age? When intelligent objects are linked in networks, just what kinds of things will they be able to do? How will the design and function of things be affected? And what kinds of things do we need to think about in advance of that age? It was out of an awareness of these kinds of issues that we started the TRON Project in 1984, with the aim of establishing a new computer order geared to the needs of the "all-pervasive computer" age.
We began with the philosophical issue of how things should be built for the new age. From that point the TRON Project has carried out research along many paths, from future applications to internal structural matters such as computer architecture and operating systems, and extending to standard data formats and the human-machine interface.
Among the fundamental technologies being established, special importance is given to real-time control. Back when a main use of computers was for EDP, or electronic data processing, real-time performance was given relatively minor consideration. In the future, however, when computers become intrinsically involved in our daily life, real-time functions at the core level will be essential. The name "TRON" applied to the project as a whole is thus derived from The Real-time Operating System Nucleus.
This project originated in Japan, as a joint effort by academia and industry, centering on the Sakamura Laboratory in the University of Tokyo. To preserve the independence of the project, it is being carried out free of ties to any governmental or other organization. The most important aspect of the way the project is being carried out is its openness. A basic concept is that anyone may use the results of the project. The specifications we define are open to implementation by anyone.APPLICATION PROJECTS The TRON Project is being carried out on two fronts. One is "application projects", i.e. looking into ways in which technology might be used in the future. Based on these results, the other concerns fundamental projects, which are developing the basic building-block technologies. The application projects are creating and studying simulations of future all-pervasive computer environments, in order to determine the actual needs and problem areas in such an environment. The studies are concentrating on life spaces, from houses to office buildings, cities, and automobiles.TRON-INTELLIGENT HOUSE CONCEPT The TRON-Intelligent House project lasted from 1988 through 1993. The pilot house, with its intelligent windows and air conditioning system described at the beginning of this article, incorporated approximately 1,000 computer systems in an area of around 200 square meters. Even the toilets were computerized. What functions are possible in a house like this? The toilet is able to perform a urinalysis and report any abnormalities. If the user wishes, this and other information can be sent by ISDN lines to a medical clinic. Microcomputers and sensors are incorporated in all the kitchen equipment, whether for maintaining an even temperature in a pot on the stove, or for putting just the right amount of seasoning in a dish. Other sensors and microchips are put to use on the security and energy-saving front, turning out lights, for example, when a room is vacated. The computer systems in the house are interconnected in a network, through which they share information with each other.
If two such houses are built, the collaboration can extend further. Suppose, for example, someone starts playing the piano. The house itself automatically inquires of the system in the neighboring house whether the sound is likely to bother anyone. If the reply is that "the baby is sleeping", the first house automatically shuts its windows and turns on the air conditioner. In such ways the scope of collaboration can be expanded beyond the individual house to include a number of nearby intelligent houses.TRON HYPER-INTELLIGENT BUILDING The experience gained from the TRON Intelligent House project is being put to use in designing the TRON Hyper-Intelligent Building. Detailed design work on the pilot building began in earnest in 1993. As in the Intelligent House, the parts configuring this building are endowed with computer intelligence, and these systems are networked to enable collaboration. The purpose of this collaboration by intelligent objects is to provide a better working environment for the people in the building.
A host of new functions are being incorporated in this building. Among them are office robots, systems for tuning the local environment automatically to individual preferences, group-ware supporting joint efforts by many people on the same project, and a distributed storage and transport system that manages the automatic flow of materials.
Let us look at an interesting example of automatic tuning. For security, the people entering the building will carry an IC card. When a person carrying such a card comes near an information board in the building, the board will read that person's characteristics and adjust the way in which the information is presented accordingly. The language of the information, for example, will be the preferred language of the individual, whether Japanese, English, German or French, for example. And if the person happens to be visually impaired, information will be read audibly; or it will be displayed in large letters if the person is near-sighted. In other words, the data passed between the IC card and the information board system will be used to optimize the form of presentation to the individual.
So what happens if a Japanese person and American both approach the information board at the same time? This requires what I would call a philosophical decision; that is, the decision is made by rules and algorithms based on the philosophy of the people running the building.
This kind of arbitration is needed for resolving conflicts between multiple requests or needs, when intelligent objects are in a collaborating relationship. In this case, the building owner is Japanese, so the American is given priority as a guest, and the information is presented in English.
Such conflicts can arise in many different situations. The offices of the building are equipped with personal air conditioning systems. The temperature around a person's desk is set to that person's individual preference. What is to be done when two people occupy the space, one who likes it warm and the other who prefers a cooler environment? There are many possible answers to this question. One would be to adjust the temperature to the person with the highest authority; but that somehow does not seem very democratic, so our approach here is to average the individual preferences.TRON COMPUTER CITY When houses and buildings are created implementing the above ideas, and are interconnected on networks, the result will be computer cities. On the city level, computers will be incorporated also in roads and highways and of course in automobiles as well. If a child wanders out into the road, the road will detect the child's presence and will signal this information to nearby cars. The intelligent cars will then be able to brake automatically, averting an accident.
A network can be used to monitor the energy systems in the city. The heat generated by a large building, for example, if used effectively, has the potential for boiling water, warming coffee or heating rooms. Taking into consideration the number of people in a room can conserve energy, and controlling traffic to prevent road congestion further saves fuel. In such ways the overall energy use in a city can be conserved.THE EFFECTS ON DESIGN Computerizing an entire city complex as described above requires a standard format for data exchange among intelligent objects. Protocols must be defined for use in living spaces. Moreover, the computers have to be useable by everyone. This means literally everyone, not just people who have some familiarity with the world of computers. When computers come to have a substantial presence in life environments, not being able to interact with computers will be a severe dysfunction. Even if just a small minority of people cannot use computers, they will not simply suffer inconvenience but will find their environment quite difficult to bear.
In addressing this issue, we began by drawing up guidelines for user interface design to ensure accessibility to all. Called the TRON HumanMachine Interface Specifications, these are a collection of guidelines for building into user interfaces the necessary adaptability to various physical conditions and the use of environments. In trying to make computers readily useable by "everyone" it must be noted carefully that this includes the elderly and those with physical disabilities. This need has given rise in the TRON Project to a whole body of technology called Enableware. The purpose is to support computer accessibility by the disabled. The Enableware specifications allow various items of equipment to be matched to each individual's needs, enabling that person to operate the equipment effectively. By selecting from a standard array of parts and tuning the user interface to the individual, the interface can be matched to the individual's characteristics for optimal ease of use.
The Enableware specifications do not represent special technologies for the sake of the elderly or disabled. Rather, Enableware is adaptation technology, of which the information board in the Hyper-Intelligent Building is also an example. This technology is being developed in line with the TRON Project's aim of making computers accessible to everyone in the true sense of the word.CONCLUSION Much will be gained in convenience when all the objects around us are embedded with computer intelligence, but naturally there are potential problems as well. There are many issues that need to be thought about in advance, and many things we still are not sure about when it comes to building the computer cities of the future.
We in the TRON Project are constantly thinking about that future. We are building many different kinds of intelligent objects, studying them from such standpoints as ease of use and ideal form. We are also building life-size simulations, from houses and buildings to city complexes, trying to get a grasp of the future in order to shape it to human needs. Our wish is that a better future society will result from our efforts.
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