Coding Isis (3 page)

Back in his office Michelle had tidied away the breakfast things and he started to get ready for his meeting. He made a final run-through of his presentation and checked that his spare glasses were charged and working correctly. It was all looking good. He was actually feeling quite excited at showing off his work, he knew his backers were going to be blown away—everyone was.

Nine thirty arrived and there was a knock at his office door. Chris thought about the arrival time. Being on time showed they respected and valued his time and weren’t playing power games, not showing up early meant they didn’t want to catch him unprepared. Chris had met Joshua before but with him was a new guy, early thirties at a guess, six-one with black hair. Joshua held out his hand and shook Chris’s with an enthusiasm reserved for those in senior positions.

‘Chris, I’d like you to meet Maynard du Preer, he’s our technical expert assigned to your project and he’s here to understand all of the things I’m sure will be over my head.’

They laughed at the half-joke, but from Chris’s previous experience, he knew that Joshua had a limited grasp of technical things. Chris shook hands with Maynard. It was important to make him feel welcome, even though he was probably here to start the process of taking his baby away from him.

Maynard spoke with a South African accent. ‘I’ve heard a lot about you Mr. Sanders,’ he said. ‘I must tell you I’m pretty excited about the work you’ve been doing here and I’m looking forward to the demonstration.’

‘So what’s your background?’ Chris asked.

‘MIT, computing science and engineering, then five years at NSA working in code-breaking before moving to Protech with Joshua.’

‘Code-breaking? Really?’ Chris turned to look at Joshua and smiled in a conspiratorial manner. ‘Joshua, have you been spying on me?’

Joshua laughed, ‘Oh come now Chris, you don’t really think you have any secrets from me?’

‘Don’t worry,’ said Maynard, ‘I’m not a spy. Code-breaking is more about applying algorithms to massively large datasets than playing at James Bond. At the end of the day I’m a programmer, just like you. Besides, that was a long time ago, now I concentrate on explaining complex things in simple terms.’ He smiled at Joshua who didn’t respond to his teasing.

Chris showed the men to their seats and started with an overview of the project’s objectives and a summary of his progress since his last meeting with Joshua. He could see that Maynard was itching to get his hands on the toys and noticed he kept glancing at the glasses on the desk, but he continued with his presentation, explaining the details behind the technology.

‘You said there are four video feeds being broadcast from the headset,’ said Joshua. ‘Why four? Surely two are enough?’

‘There are four feeds so that we can provide a stereo image of what the user is looking at, coupled with a lower resolution real-time image of each eye which can be used to track what the user is focusing on.’ Maynard seemed transfixed and Chris continued with his explanation. ‘The entire feed is stored for later processing in something I call “dream time”. Computer storage space is cheap, and I use this stored data to refine the analytical routines. This gives me an enormous amount of test data to run the new changes over.’

Maynard still appeared desperate to get his hands on the equipment, but he was attentive and seemed to understand the concepts well. ‘I thought the processing of the images would need to be done in real-time?’ he asked. 

This guy is smart
, thought Chris. He walked over to a whiteboard and started to sketch a diagram that would help him explain. ‘The data that needs to be extracted in real-time is very different to the data that is interesting for later analysis. In real-time, we are interested in the object that is the focus of attention and interpreting voice commands. For longer term analysis, we want to build facial-recognition profiles of the people we have met throughout the day. This is why I call it dream time; it’s as though your brain is sorting through all of the data you have collected throughout the day.’

‘What are the facial-recognition profiles used for?’ asked Maynard.

‘We use them to help the system recognize people in the future. Have you ever met someone and, even though you recognized the face, you couldn’t remember the name? My system will make that a thing of the past. The details of an individual will pop-up beside them. When you see the face, the computer system starts matching against the profiles in your database.’

‘That’s great, but does that mean you need to go through the data and match the profiles to people’s names?’

‘That’s a good question,’ said Chris. ‘The system is smart enough to analyze the audio feed and use that to determine people’s names. Where we haven’t identified them through conversation, we attempt to match them through other databases and social networking. I use the system as an extension of my memory. I no longer struggle to remember people’s names, and I have instant recall of any topic I have previously discussed.’

He could tell Joshua and Maynard were suitably impressed. ‘Imagine the potential,’ he continued. ‘I can replay conversations or view a transcript that the system has created for me. The transcript is indexed and searchable. I can ask the system questions like
“Who was I discussing the facial recognition system with last week?
” and the system would offer a list of possible matches. I can replay the conversations in a picture-in-picture type display whilst continuing a conversation with someone else.’

Chris walked back to the desk and picked up the three pairs of glasses. They looked like ordinary glasses, two with clear lenses and one with dark lenses like sunglasses. ‘I suppose you’d like to have a play?’ he said. He handed the glasses to his guests and they put them on. Maynard spent some time examining the frame first.

‘I’ve read the specifications,’ said Maynard, ‘but I can’t see how you can fit so much into these frames. You’ve done a remarkable job. They look to be completely sealed, how do you charge them?’

‘You’re right,’ said Chris. ‘They’re totally waterproof, and weigh only slightly more than a regular pair of glasses. The camera lenses are almost undetectable except under bright light. To answer your question, they use inductive charging. I place them on this surface here and an induction coil creates an alternating electromagnetic field which is converted to an electric current by a second coil in the headset. I’ve made some refinements to reduce the heating effect and energy loss, but basically it works like your electric toothbrush.’

Joshua had already put his glasses on and he was waving his hand in front of his face.

‘What kind of coverage are you getting?’ said Maynard.

‘Do you mean how far can we stray from the campus?’ asked Chris, Maynard nodded. ‘The glasses transmit to a repeater that is about the size of a cell phone.’ Chris held up his phone and it looked quite unremarkable. ‘It uses technology similar to Bluetooth, although I’ve made some modifications to that too, I got rid of the lag, upped the speed and made it less power hungry. The repeater can transmit to base stations within the tolerances of a usual cellular network, say one mile in the city, about twenty miles in the open. It depends on a lot of factors: interference, obstacles, that kind of thing. In fact, this system now piggybacks the existing infrastructure using regular 3G and 4G networks where available. I use multiple antennas to increase the bandwidth.’

Joshua looked to Maynard who was nodding approvingly and examining the repeater. Joshua was looking confused. ‘Sorry,’ said Chris, ‘by bandwidth, I mean the amount of data I can transmit in a given period of time.’

Joshua waved the explanation away. ‘Don’t try to explain these things to me Chris,’ he said. ‘That’s why I brought Maynard with me. Why don’t I go and fetch coffees?’

‘Great,’ said Chris, ‘you can do some field testing for me on your way.’ He sat at a computer terminal and tapped a few keys.

Joshua stopped and held his hands out in front of him. ‘Er, Chris,’ he said. ‘I’ve got a problem, my headset has gone blank. I can’t see a thing.’

‘I know,’ said Chris. ‘I’d like you to try out something I think has real commercial potential. I call it
blind-man mode
. The computer system will guide you to your destination. I’ve told it you want to go to the cafeteria, just follow the instructions you hear and you should get there in one piece.’

Joshua set off slowly towards the doorway, his hands held in front of him.

‘Have faith,’ said Chris. ‘I won’t let you walk into any walls.’

He turned to Maynard and said, ‘The technology is a little overwhelming, but you’re going to love the experience.’ He carried on explaining about data transmission rates, error correction, cell-shifting, and anything else he could think of. He didn’t pull any punches but Maynard seemed to take it all in his stride. What did he expect from an ex-NSA and MIT graduate? After twenty minutes of answering deep and probing questions, Joshua returned with three Styrofoam cups and a gait that suggested he had made it safely there and back without incident, and now had confidence that the voice he was hearing wouldn’t steer him into walls.

Chris decided it was time to let the men experience the system for themselves. He started by walking them through the book reading application. He enjoyed watching the two men, holding invisible books and turning pages. The effect was almost comical, like watching a mime in a business suit.

‘Normally your repeater is connected to your own personal data stream,’ said Chris, then he remembered Joshua, ‘I mean, the phone thingy is hooked up to your own pair of glasses.’ The visitors both laughed.

‘I’m not that bad,’ said Joshua.

‘The system learns from your experiences. If you meet someone it remembers their name from analyzing your conversation and picks up on personal details such as family members, ages, birthdays and so on. The headsets you’re using are individual to you but I took a copy of my profile so you had something to work with. Maynard, if you look at Joshua, you’ll see what I mean. Joshua, take a look at that monitor on the desk. It’s showing the real-time feed from each of our sets. You’ll be able to see what Maynard is seeing including the overlay.’

As Maynard looked at Joshua, the monitor showed a callout, slightly translucent with details: his name, wife’s name, interests, relationship to Chris, and date of their last meeting. There was even an option to show a transcription of their most recent conversation. ‘Wow,’ he said.

‘I know,’ said Chris. ‘It kind of has that effect on people.’

Joshua stood and walked into the bathroom that adjoined the office and looked in the mirror. Chris smiled to himself; he knew what he was trying to do. Instead of the personal information he had seen earlier, the system displayed a callout that simply read
‘The surest cure for vanity is loneliness.’

He called to Joshua in the bathroom, ‘Please forgive the quote. The system selects something on the subject of mirrors or vanity at random from the internet. The facial recognition algorithm works with reflections. It knows you’re looking in the mirror. The quote is a kind of
“Easter Egg”
,
a little message from the programmer, as it were.’

‘Very nice, Mr. Sanders,’ said Joshua, ‘I hope there aren’t too many more “Easter Eggs” in the system.’

Joshua looked a little concerned, he was still smiling but Chris realized he should probably have taken out his little joke before showing his work to the people that paid the bills. ‘No, that’s the only one,’ he said, but inside he was kicking himself.

Maynard took off his glasses and started to examine them once more. ‘How does the audio work?’ he said.

‘I’m pleased you asked about that. It’s remarkably clear isn’t it? I’m generating vibrations in the portion of the glasses that sits around the ear. The vibrations are heard directly by the inner ear bypassing the eardrums. It means you can still hear everything going on around you as well as the sound that is provided by the system. It’s quite scary sometimes as it seems like the voices are inside your head. I guess in a way they are.’

‘Amazing,’ said Maynard. He then turned to look at Joshua who seemed to take this as a prompt.

‘We’re very impressed with what you’ve been doing Chris.’ He paused as though trying to find the right words. Chris had a feeling bad news was on its way.

Please don’t pull the funding
, he thought.

‘Maynard is going to be working with you from now on. He’ll help with the eventual transition of your research to commercial ventures. Don’t worry, he won’t get in your way.’

Chris didn’t know what to make of this. He knew that he would need to hand his baby over eventually but hadn’t realized how close that day had come.

‘There’s one more thing,’ said Joshua, ‘we’ve been using some of your facial recognition and data streaming algorithms for a little project of our own. We call it “Horus”. I’d like you to work with Maynard to fully integrate Horus with your system.’