HVAC Control in the New Millennium.pdf - HVAC.Amickracing

HVAC Control in the New MillenniumNeurons and ComputersWhen the first big computer attracted the attention of the popularpress in the early 1950s, they were given the name of electronic brains.The human brain is made up of minute switching units called neurons.There are about 10 billion of these.In the early 1960s, with transistorization, 10 billion electronicswitches had shrunk to about the size of the Statue of Liberty, and a 10-kilowatt generator was needed for power. By the mid-1960s, integratedcircuits compressed this electronic brain to the size of a Greyhound bus,and you could run it off a 220-volt outlet. By the mid-1970s it was thesize of a TV set and the shrinking continues so now it is a little biggerthan a credit card with most of the space taken up by the connections.In the future, the nerve cells of the human brain may be linked tocomputer circuitry, creating a network that can interact with similarnetworks, and with computers and other databases. The contents of thebrain could be scanned and downloaded into an external database,where they could be manipulated, stolen or even erased.Future TechnologyOther possible developments may affect control technology. At theContext-Aware Laboratory at MIT, nontraditional interfaces such asspeech and gesture recognition are being combined with sensor dataand specialized software models to allow computers to determine whathumans are doing and act accordingly.In the future, devices will be prevalent but unseen. They will bebuilt-in or piped into homes, as utilities are now. These labor-savingdevices will need no programming and batteries. Most householdequipment will respond to voice commands. In an emergency youwould give the command to get an ambulance and it would be done.Smart cupboards and refrigerators will automatically reorder foodthat runs out. Clothing and household linens will be made of smartfabrics that clean and press themselves. Human washing machines willcycle you through soaping, washing, rinsing and drying.Robots may pick up after us and eventually housekeeping will gobeyond robotics and computers towards invisibility.©2001 by The Fairmont Press, Inc. All rights reserved.