By Joseph Varghese/Staff Reporter
Cloud computing will be the key platform for most applications in the coming decade, according to a senior researcher.
Gordon Bell, principal researcher in the Microsoft Research Silicon Valley Laboratory, said training in cloud computing would be ‘super important’ in the coming days.
Cloud computing has not been made use of very well by the computing community, he said.
“Many of the people are not even aware of the fact that they come across many of the cloud computing applications in their activities. Within a short time, cloud will be the platform for most of the applications,” Bell told Gulf Times.
Cloud applications would be used for real monitoring in many areas that would improve the services dramatically.
Highlighting certain services, Bell said traffic and transportation would be one area where cloud computing would have a big impact.
“Cloud will enable traffic sensor data to identify each car as a special entity and will have specific Internet-protocol (IP) addresses. The cloud platform will be the modern equivalent of the traffic infrastructure. Wherever you are, you will be able to connect with the cloud. This will enable traffic and other applications lot more intelligent and smarter.”
Another area of the extensive use of cloud could be in the health sector, Bell said. He said he himself was using many applications on his body to measure the pulse and other body movements, and added: “Cloud computing is the right platform to make use of many of the health applications and devices. It can be used to monitor heartbeat or the amount of sleep of a person and many more at the real time.”
He said the self monitoring health devices would result in huge advancement in human development.
Bell also spoke about various advancements in technology that could revolutionise the world in the coming years.
He said Google’s effort to produce a ‘video eyeglass’ could become one of the greatest advancements.
“The glass will have a camera, display, microphone and earphone. This can be one of the biggest devices that can happen in the near future,” the expert said.
Regarding the feature of the eyeglass to identify a person with each blink, he said a lot of data needed to be collected and stored about other people to be identified.
“This data base will be the main part of using such a device. It is estimated that in the near future, there will be almost five terabytes of information about an individual available on the cyber world.”
Referring to the research activities at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMUQ) , Bell said the university was supposed to develop a research agenda and create room for new ideas for local companies.
“This is what is generally done in the universities in the US and CMUQ is also going ahead on those lines. The researches will generate new ideas and will help the country in a big way,” he concluded.
Gordon Bell speaking at CMUQ on Thursday. PICTURE: Shaji Kayamkulam.
