With IR forming the core of the systems which have evolved to learn, understand and decide, there are still vast possibilities of improvement in its method as well as in its application. We try to imagine and give a brief perspective about the future of IR and its related applications.
Temporal Knowledge Graph
If Google’s Knowledge Graph is extended in the temporal dimension, an archive which not only links with the associated entities given a time frame but it can also reach out to associate with different entities in separate time frames. Knowledge graphs associated with cultural topics can give produce different results with related entities in different time periods.
Google Goggles & Glass Integration
Currently the wearable Google Glass device (eye-wear with HUD, camera) focuses on displaying information to the user in the HUD (heads up display) and acting as an interface between the user and his phone. The IR search capability of the Google Goggles mobile app is slowly being integrated into Glass. Right now in its infancy Glass does not do visual search, but relies on having the user voice the query and have it transcribed into text for processing.
The Goggles is able to recognize landmarks, book covers, bar-codes , wine bottle labels, corporate logos and artwork. Now it is reasonable to postulate that the Glass device will bring us closer to having a “full-time IR” system that is constantly retrieving information about the user’s surroundings and presenting relevant information. In the future many more wearable such as Glass will interface with IR systems and execute non-text queries (voice, images, video) (Nathan Chandler, HowStuffWorks)
The project is still considered to be under development and can impact many lives if the limitations can be overcome and real time information can be provided from the live feed of portraits, sceneries and objects.(Dean Takahashi, 2010)
This idea can also be extended to retrieving information from user recorded videos and searching the web with extracted features. It will have many applications ranging from investigation, business research, product research and education.
System for searching an IR system according to user-specified location information
AT&T have filed for a patent that searched for IR system according to the geo location of the user’s handheld device. This is on the lines of information retrieval of IR systems which can locate specific things near a pre-registered geo location. Initially it empowers users to store geo-specific information about a place and its business importance in a database and allows the users to retrieve information on other businesses with these cached geo locations. This can allow to explore a wide area of the local businesses around a specified geo-locations suitable for researches before setting a shop, buying new property or as trivial as finding the nearest car-mechanic. (Patent – US8626759 B2) (David J. Anderson, Senis Busayapongchai, 2008)
IBM Watson’s cognitive learning
Cognitive system is one that could learn, reason, and understand natural language (research.ibm.com). If Watson can be stretched to consume all the languages currently present including the languages of the past, Watson can create an ecosystem of recognition and purposeful communication. The biggest draw of cognitive learning is that the computer can understand information the way a human does, but do it at a faster rate and a much larger scale. This means that a query made to a cognitive learning system will return results that are much more suitable for the user’s consumption. Such a system could even interact with the user and engage in a dialogue, instead of merely being directed to perform queries until understanding is reached.
There is a flipside to this coin with the interaction of machines and humans. If the cognitive systems are elevated to an extent where they can be given decision making capabilities, there can be a distinct change in the humans behavior.
Conclusion
We wrap up with the thought from Thomas Malone, Director, MIT Center for Collective Intelligence “The combination of people and computers will be able to think in a way that neither people nor computers have ever done before.” (Steve Hammin, 2013)
Literature
(Nathan Chandler, HowStuffWorks) – http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/other-gadgets/google-goggles.htm
(Dean Takahashi, 2010) – http://venturebeat.com/2010/08/23/how-google-goggles-works-to-deliver-visual-search-results-for-mobile-phones/
(David J. Anderson, Senis Busayapongchai, 2008) – http://www.google.com/patents/US8626759
(Steve Hammin, 2013) – http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2013/06/mits-thomas-malone-on-collective-intelligence.html