Technology Trend “Interactive Computing”

Expansion of interactive interface

Personal voice assistants installed on smartphones are used in various situations, such as checking schedule or weather of the day, searching for nearby restaurants. In addition to smartphones, voice assistant terminals installed in residences and offices are also becoming popular in both Europe and the USA. Since these terminals are ready, you can play music, adjust the air conditioner temperature or lighting of the room, and order products, just by talking to them without any operation.

With the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in recent years, a program that uses AI called Chatbot is becoming widespread that is used to automate communication. Chatbots can provide a wide range of services from flight reservations to real estate suggestions.. In addition, bank plans are in place for interactive services using chatbots such as account balances confirmation or wire transfers and even advisory financial plans based on usage patterns. Interactive services in coordination with AI will likely continue to increase in the future.

Development of AI technology enables further natural conversations

Interactive Computing

The development of deep learning technology in recent years has significantly increased the accuracy of recognising images and other patterns. In October 2016, the error rate of voice recognition technology reached 5.9%, the equivalent to that of speech-to-text experts. (English voice) ^(※1).

In addition, the use of technology to recognise emotions from voice, facial expressions, and text has been expanding. In marketing, analyses of emotion changes in viewers at CM enables the identification of effective scenes and differences in responses to the same contents depending on countries and cultures. It is expected that future uses of computers will expand from human assistance purposes to reading human emotions for direct interaction. For example, a computer reading anger in a user driving a car might talk to the user to calm him or her down.

On the other hand, computers still could not understand the contextual meanings behind words like humans. For this reason, humans may feel stressed and disappointed about the interaction, and there may come a period of disillusion with these technologies.

However, in the near future, just as speech recognition and emotion recognition technology, the context- understanding technology will be launched. The development of technologies that support human conversations with computers will enable a more natural interaction as it more accurately understands the nuances of a conversation, including a user’s intentions and emotions, thereby further expanding the use of interactive computing.

The world of interactive computing revolution

Conversation is the most natural communication means of humans. With a conversation-based interface, many actions will be carried out using interactive apps. Instead of opening different apps for each purpose, there may be a system appears in which a personal assistant app listens to user’s requests, and then distributes the processing tasks to other apps or Chatbots according to the request content.

When automatic response by AI becomes possible, it will have a big influence on how people connect with society. Until now, it has been mainly consisted of unilateral information distribution by companies, such as emails or online advertisements, and a temporary connection by telephone or direct visits to brick-and-mortar stores. With interactive computing, however, the company-to-individual, and individual-to-individual connections will become bidirectional and continual.

It also has the potential of changing the way of decision- making. Currently, users need to search for relevant information out of an overwhelming amount of information and make decisions for the purpose of product purchases or travel arrangements. In interactive computing with AI, the information required is narrowed down step by step through interaction, leading to more natural and appropriate decision making.

Interactive computing is not merely an application on smartphones or PCs. It will be installed as a standard feature in all kinds of devices, while making its way to becoming a new computing infrastructure. It will not be long before we can simply talk to a device to get any information or product, at any time and from anywhere, such as at a house, store or in a car. It will be installed as a standard feature in all kinds of devices, while making its way to becoming a new computing infrastructure. The world in which we can simply talk to a device to get any information or products, at any time and from anywhere, such as at a house, store or in a car is coming soon.