Gestures to lead next 'digital decade'

Andi Haswidi and Desy Nurhayati ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sat, 05/10/2008 10:34 AM  |  Headlines

TRENDS TALK: Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates speaks at a presidential lecture at the Jakarta Convention Center on Friday. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (left) and Cabinet ministers were among the attendees. (JP/R. Berto Wedhatama)The interaction between humans and computers will advance in the "next digital decade" to increasingly involve the human voice, gestures and touch, says Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

A keynote speaker at the fifth presidential lecture Friday morning, the founder of the world's largest software manufacturer told some 2,500 people the rapid reduction in the prices of information technology devices allowed ideas to develop faster.

One of these ideas, he said, was to make a computer with vision.

"Say you had a computer inside your desk that is watching any time you touch the surface. You could touch and grab a document and ask for information to be expanded just with your pen. This is a reality today," he said.

In the near future, he said, such a device could be used in offices as whiteboards or desks that could be operated by human gestures, touch, speech and writing.

"With vision, all of those things will come to the mainstream (to make) the personal computer work in a much different way than it does today," he said.

Development in information technology, he said, not only would bring about new products but also broaden the benefits of what humans could do.

"I want to be clear that by far the biggest impact of these technologies will be on ... activities of healthcare, education, government and research. These tools will become dramatically more effective for those activities," Gates said.

For a country like Indonesia to catch up with the advancement, he said, it was imperative to focus on allowing more students access to information technology.

"In terms of applying these technologies, there has to be infrastructure ... and enough educated people with the skill set, and there has to be a national plan," Gates said while praising President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for leading the national committee on information technology.

Speaking separately at Microsoft's Government Leaders Forum in Jakarta the same day, the President said the government was currently moving to expand use of IT in a move toward good governance.

"Using IT, we have streamlined our bureaucracy and enhanced transparency in our governance. We are now into e-procurement," Yudhoyono told the forum.

The speech, also attended by Gates and Microsoft chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie, was titled, "Serving the Citizen: The Transformative Power of Information Technology in Delivering Government Services".

"With the help of information technology, any government can deliver services to the people much faster and more efficiently. But to us in Indonesia, with a population of 230 million, the task is a great challenge," Yudhoyono said.

The government is currently reviewing all laws and regulations for faster information technology development, expanding the fiber optic backbone nationwide while promoting e-literacy through the education system.

The president said the government aimed to connect 1.43 million computers in schools throughout the country by 2009, the end of his tenure.

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