The theme of this year’s university, the first one I have attended, was: HP: Past, Present and Future. There was a total of 10 sessions to choose from and I selected Through HP’s lens to photos, Personal computing connects, Inside the camera, The Future and Analogue and Digital Photography.
The sessions were split into two parts – a lecture, followed by practical hands-on work to test the various HP products. In all the sessions, we were given the opportunity to quiz some of HP’s leading scientists, engineers and designers, including chief technology officer Phil McKinney, camera expert Bob Gann and others.
Through HP’s lens to photos
Bob Gann delivered an excellent lecture on what users are looking for in a digital camera and, in turn, how the camera interprets light. After that, the workgroup used the HP Photosmart R937 digital camera to test Dr Gann’s theories and explanations.
The first thing Dr Gann did was explain to us what defines a particular digital camera.
Is it the ability to capture a great photo? Not really – most DSC’s do a better job than the film camera they replaced. Is it the ability to capture “lots” of photos? Again, no. All DSC’s can do this. Traditional specs? No. MP, speed, zoom, focus, LCD size, cost, even stabilisation are becoming check off items.
Dr Gann explained: “For most people, the answer is: They are all about the same quality-wise. What people really need to look at nowadays is what they want to do with that camera.” He continued: “What you should think about is what do you want to do with your photos. Do I have a special need (situation)? Share them on the camera? Share them online? Print them? Use them in creative tasks?”
So what is Dr Gann telling us? Basically, it is the functions of the camera that you are looking at. Not the zoom, not the megapixels – they are all pretty much the same. He said that the proof of the pudding is in the eating, after the photo is taken. “You need to ask yourself these questions – Did the camera capture the photo you wanted? Can you find the photo? Can you print, share or use the photo to tell your story?”
After the lecture, we were let loose with the camera, shooting outside and indoors, testing the its various light interpretation settings. After this, we were then shown a vast array of printers, scanners and combos of the two. Most are touch screen and can be used without a computer to create photo prints up to A4 in size. There is a huge number of features on these machines, beginning with the ability to jack straight in with a memory card, or a USB camera connection. But it’s not only about printing. There is colour and image correction, the ability to change images to black and white or sepia, place captions, borders. “It can even order your lunch or produce a cold beer,” joked Dr Gann. And that is the key to HP’s success. There is always an element of fun in everything they do and this permeates throughout the company, from the scientists and engineers to the designers and conceptual thinkers.
Personal Computing Connects
This session was an absolute eye-opener, addressed by Philip McKinney vice president and chief technology officer, Personal Systems Group, Bob Gann, general manager, Gaming Business Unit, and Jeff Kraft, product manager, Home Servers HP Personal Systems Group.
Mr McKinney kicked off with a presentation on what he, and HP, believe is going to change in the IT world in the next 20 years. We began with slide shoes from 1987 through to the present, all of us marvelling at how far we had come, chuckling at the idea of tape cassettes, green screen monitors and the like. Indeed, as Mr McKinney put it: “My daughter, who is eight, was borne into a world that does not remember tape cassettes, VHS, and not having the internet.”
He said that by 2027, the main things that are going change are social dynamics, personal entertainment, intelligent networks and gadgets.
Mr McKinney thinks that by 2010, in the field of social dynamics, media experiences will converge. Mediascape-like experiences will enable the enhancement of virtual entertainment overlays to physical world scenarios for gaming and interactive tourism.
2015 will see the advent of virtual collaboration, as globalisation takes hold. He believes that by 2020, virtual life will have taken a firm hold in the IT world, with people having an alternate life in virtual environments that will be highly usable, personalised, and preferred for interaction and community building for lifestyle and business value. By 2025, virtual communities gain legal status and will gain recognition as distinct entities separate from the physical world with its unique needs for rights, privacy and law.
Speaking about personal entertainment, this visionary said that now, in 2007, we can already see the beginning of smart TVs – where digital TVs are “always connected” and offer a multitude of movie, music, gaming, and interactive entertainment through new content providers.
He believes that by 2015, intelligent devices in the home will seamlessly interact with each other and share personalities. By 2020, he says, content will be dynamic and accessible via any device or multitude of devices, wherever the users have a desire.
This will drive us through to 2025, when it will be a case of entertainment at will.
Personal entertainment will be driven by desire, with little or no consideration for time, location, context, or technology – it just happens when we want it.
Networks, he said will take a similar pattern – by 2010 we will see seamless network sessions through smart hand-off between overlapping network boundaries. By 2015, the internet will be a link of federated networks with seamless access and content across all network boundaries. 2020 will see the ushering in of anypoint-to-anypoint networks that will be commonplace, providing peer-to-peer access to all content in cities, communities, homes, and Body Area Networks.
By 2025, we will see all static, nomadic, and mobile entities connected and able to interact in real-time. Interaction will be people-people, machine-machine, people-machine.
In the gadget sphere, handheld and portable devices will possess ubiquitous connectivity to cellular and broadband networks by 2010. By 2015, people’s new work+play lifestyles will incorporate personal computing devices for all aspects: health, finance, entertainment, business, communicating, recreation.
By 2020, there may be a few multi-function (ie, weak-general) devices, but most will be purpose-built strong-specific that will perform one or two functions in
people’s lives.
By 2025, people will have numerous network-aware, behavior-aware devices in their lives with interface and interaction via natural speech and motor methods without keyboards or mice.
Home server
Jeff Kraft spoke to the media about the incredibly versatile HP Mediasmart Server. This excellent, and attractive, piece of machinery can be used to not only back up data, but also to share photos over the internet with certain authorised friends through HP Photo Webshare. It also allows users to access their files and applications remotely, auto backup computers on the network, share files around the home and use duplicate folders for extra protection.
Users can also stream photos, music and video to HDTV. It also has easy to add off-shelf SATA hard disc drives as needs grow.