PROVIDENCE – Walt Mossberg sees ambient computing as the next big inflection point in the digital revolution, a movement that started in the late 1970s with personal computers.
Ambient computing, also known as ambient intelligence, is a catchall term for electronic environments that are sensitive and responsive to the presence of people. Think Amazon Echo and Google Home as crude examples, and the fictitious Starship Enterprise from Star Trek as the utopian example engineers and developers are working toward, Mossberg explained.
“This is not science fiction,” he added. “It’s happening.”
Mossberg on Wednesday morning detailed the possibilities and challenges associated with ambient computing during BIF2017, an annual summit hosted by the Providence-based Business Innovation Factory, or BIF.
The event, held in the Trinity Rep Theater in Providence, draws hundreds of people from around the globe each year, who gather to hear speakers, or “storytellers,” talk about innovation happening throughout the world.
Mossberg, a Warwick native and one of 32 storytellers scheduled to speak, famously wrote the “Personal Technology” column for the Wall Street Journal from 1991 to 2013. He recently retired in July and is now writing a book about the digital revolution, which he says focuses in part on ambient computing.
Beyond the exciting possibilities that could become realities through the advancement of ambient computing, Mossberg is concerned about related issues of privacy and security.
“We have to stop … dancing around these privacy and security issues,” he said, evoking a round of applause from about 500 people in the audience.
The two-day summit each year draws speakers from different sectors and backgrounds. The individuals talk to the crowd in a Ted Talks-like atmosphere, and the stories are often about personal and professional challenges related to innovation.
Dr. Ami B. Bhatt, director of the Adult Congenital Heart Disease Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, detailed her challenges of trying to better connect adults with congenital heart disease to care.
“The number of adults with congenital heart disease has surpassed the number of kids with heart disease and we have done so well that it’s a success story,” she said. “We have failed in one little way: 70 percent of them after the age of 18 don’t come back to care.”
Bhatt has spent her career trying to solve this issue, and has developed a multidisciplinary curriculum focused on patient-centered outcomes. She’s incorporated telemedicine so she can treat patients remotely, and has worked with startups and engineers on advancing mobile-health technology.
She’s incorporated other health-related practices, including psychology, as she’s discovered the mental health of some patients has hampered the desire to seek care. She sees care as a right of citizens and a responsibility of caregivers.
“At the end of the day, I think the connection is possible,” Bhatt said.
The sold-out event was scheduled to continue through Thursday. A full slate of storytellers can be found on the BIF website here. The event is also being live streamed here.
Eli Sherman is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Sherman@PBN.com, or follow him on Twitter @Eli_Sherman.
