Who is watching your back?

In this high tech world it is comforting to know that you have angels looking over your shoulder. For example you have a computer wingman driving with you every mile of the way.  You won’t believe me until you try to drive a Model T where the spark advance is controlled by the driver using a lever attached to the steering wheel.  It is very easy to stall the engine each and every shift by getting the spark advance wrong.  Technology done right, like computer controlled spark advance, is user invisible.

Ford Model T opened driving to the masses

We all get frustrated with new technology that requires the skill of a rocket scientist to operate.  Robotic and CNC manufacturing machinery that was introduced in the 90’s fit in that category.  The computer processor in that equipment was barely able to keep up with running the equipment and did not have any leftover capacity to assist the user.  The good news is that we can now afford lots of computer capacity as Moore’s law predicted.   Multiple large capacity computers are embedded into just about everything we currently create.

The secret is in creating useful tasks for these computers to do.  A computerized “wingman”,  who bridges the gap between the bits and byte and the user is one of the most helpful tasks.  I work with Wesley an industrial vehicle builder who offers an autonomous tug vehicle.  This technology would not have the market interest or acceptance if it required a rocket scientist to purpose it for the task. The embedded “wingman” in the computer control enables a normal warehouse worker to program a delivery,  simply by driving the route it the first time.  Other good examples of invisible computerized “wingmen” include the Milage Trakker http://mileagetrakker.com plugged into my car that collects and tabulates the mileage that I drive without me having to think about it.  It also understands and interprets the engine error codes with information provided real time to my smart phone.

I am not sure that I pictured the angel looking over my shoulder as a R2-D2 robot.  As computers invade every aspect of our lives I am beginning to believe that this is exactly what I need.