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Jason Perlow and Scott Raymond
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Project Blade Runner: The user experience of 2019

By | May 6, 2011, 11:39am PDT

Summary: How far do you think we are from our 2019 vision of the personal computer?

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Jason Perlow and I started with a premise: What would computers look like in the year 2019, the future setting of Ridley Scott’s 1982 seminal work, Blade Runner?

We decided that mere speculation was an old, hackneyed method, and instead set out to actually design a new computer system based on existing technologies projected through 8 years of development and improvement.

Therefore we present to you Project Blade Runner, the next generation of personal computing. Sit back and listen as we discuss the roadmap for the future of computing technology.

Project Blade Runner 2019 Podcast

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Blade, Podcasts, Internet, Scott Raymond, ARM, PC, Computer, Blade Servers, Productivity, Utility Computing, Servers, Desktops, Hardware

Scott Raymond has been a technologist and system administrator for over 25 years.

Disclosure

Scott Raymond

I am the IT Manager for a high end audio and network systems integrator in northern Califronia. My wife works at Adobe Systems, Inc. Whenever I write an article that might involve Adobe or its products, I add a disclaimer at the top of the article to make sure she is not involved in any way. We have a small bit of stock with AT&T and no other major investments that would cause conflict.

Biography

Scott Raymond

Scott Raymond has been a technologist and system administrator for over 25 years. Starting as a hobbyist in his teens, Scott quickly learned that he could translate his passion and knowledge into a full-time career. He currently works as the IT Manager for a high end audio and network systems integrator in northern California. He has written technology articles for various publications in the past and began contributing to ZDnet as a guest blogger on Jason Perlow's Tech Broiler. Scott and Jason met in New York in the 1990s where they co-managed the New York City Palm Pilot Users' Group.

In his spare time, Scott is a trained chef and avid bicycling enthusiast, as well as a voracious reader of historical, science and horror fiction. He is a huge fan of pop culture, with a wide range of interest in TV shows, movies and games.

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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
Traxxion 21st Oct
I'm inclined to side with geolemon. I think we are already heading toward phones becoming "normal" personal computers. Of course you will still need a full size terminal of some kind and it could well look something like this. Hopefully by then it will basically be a sort of wireless RDP/KVM which detects the close proximity(or connection) presence of the phone and provides you with a login screen - et voila - a workstation. This could extend to work and home meaning you can take everything with you wherever, whenever and would GREATLY reduce overall power consumption.

Standalone tablets, phones, gps (possibly), desktops and laptops will become special purchase items if you want a bit more va-va-voom.

Here is the other thing - physical will always rule. An optical keyboard might be handy to have in an emergency, but you absolutely will not want to work on one all day. Touchscreens and optical cannot replace the simple physical device and there is really no need to replace it either.
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
Aerowind 6th May 2011
I'd trust an optical keyboard even less than a touchscreen one. I know that they exist, and are cool as hell, but the fact remains that nothing can replace a tactile response. Other than that, I don't really see much different from a normal PC today, other than the curved screen that seems to want to kill me.
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Contributr
RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
Scott Raymond 6th May 2011
@Aerowind That is simply a conceptual image from the artist working on the designs with us. Have you listened to the podcast or read Jason's article yet?
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Please do not forget to name yourself in the beginnings of podcasts
DeRSSS 6th May 2011
@Scott Raymond: so listeners would easier grasp who talks to whom.
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Contributr
RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
Scott Raymond 6th May 2011
@denisrs Quite right, my apologies. That's Jason who does the introduction. Unfortunately my laptop mic wasn't that great. However, for future podcasts I will have a professional-grade microphone that will improve quality dramatically.
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
Aerowind 6th May 2011
@Scott Raymond Sorry, I didn't actually see a podcast, though that's probably more because of Websense than anything on your end.
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
alasiri8 Updated - 7th Jul
@Scott Raymond What i want to know is why no yet has co m bine a optical keyboard wi th a tablet with a stand built into the back of a tablet. I thought about various designs myself and would probably pick up such a table if it was on sell.The image does look cool through.
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I agree: no 'virtual' keyboard ...
vulpine@... 9th May 2011
@Aerowind : can replace a tactile one -- at least, not yet. On the other hand, there's very little evidence in the Project's design that even considers touch capability for navigation or other purposes. I could see the Project machine on the market in just 3 to 4 years, but grossly obsolete by 2019.
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
kikl 6th May 2011
I think you could have focussed more on what future technology means from a user perspective. For example 4k computer monitors? How does that change the work with the computer? What does it make possible,...
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Contributr
RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
Scott Raymond 6th May 2011
@kikl Jason's article focuses on the technical aspect. On Monday, I am posting a follow-up article that shows how all of this affects the end user, and the benefits from the future platform.
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
techristian_z 9th May 2011
@Scott Raymond

It seems that every time the computer doubles in speed, the size of the operating system doubles as well. Therefore, you could have actually booted a Windows 3.1 computer faster than Quad Core running Windows 7 today. Even my latest update of Ubuntu is taking much longer to reboot. I got into home computing in it's infancy and would rather see some more direct hardware programming than all of these abstracted layers of software. Then we will see REAL speed. Remember the C64? It booted in ONE second. The entire screen could change in the snap of a finger. That is partly why there is a small following of ,8 bit users, today .

Dan Laskowski

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2GWi5-f_vY
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
Grayson Peddie 6th May 2011
Ah, a podcast? Nah, I'm hearing impaired. sad
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Contributr
RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
Scott Raymond 6th May 2011
@Grayson Peddie Fortunately we have articles to go along with the podcast. Read the article by Jason posted earlier today. I will be following up with another article on Monday.
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hopeful vision
gdstark13 9th May 2011
My hope is that we're not still worried about installing AV software installed on future computers. And I hope our computers aren't spending so much time just updating themselves, not to improve the experience, but just to keep from being broken by others. And I hope that turning a computer on or off is instantaneous.

Having grown up on Star Trek, I just assumed computers of the future would be omnipresent, accessible by voice command whenever and wherever I was. Judging by how little progress has been made in the last decade, that hope seems very distant. We're still at the "I hope it still boots" stage.

gary
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
neilpost 9th May 2011
Ha-ha - Most of my customers will still be runing Windows XP happy


so it will look the same as it does today.
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Contributr
RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
jperlow 9th May 2011
@neilpost I doubt it, just getting drivers to work on current hardware is a difficult undertaking, let alone systems 8 to 10 years from now. If they're running it, it will be virtualized.
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
neilpost 9th May 2011
@jperlow
Jason - I still have a number of corporate customers running Windows NT and 2000 (both server and workstation) in production environments, never mind XP, which is much friendler to more modern hardware like SATA.
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
Knowles2 9th May 2011
@neilpost corporate customers perhaps. Consumers most likely outside of the geek world no most will have switch to window 10 by then or at least somewhere between 7 and 10. But I do expect slightly higher rates of Linux (Google variety) and IOS to become more numerous and hopefully the OS will become like the browsers wars are today a highly competitive enviroment with lots of choice.
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
neilpost 9th May 2011
@Knowles2
Corporate customers, or your Uncle with his Windows 95 Desktop still chuntering along.
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
geolemon 9th May 2011
I'm thinking more like this:

Your smartphone, with dimensions that are roughly what we have today... but computing power extrapolated out to 2019 proportions.

Then - even though I always say that in today's world, the Atrix makes no sense (touchscreen OS means it should dock into a tablet, not a netbook) - in the future where we could have all of our computing power/needs in a pocketable device, I'd expect that in 2019, we'd have a dock that does what the Atrix does. With physical keys, because lasers don't do tactile feedback. And with a physical screen - but only to augment what I'd think might be a couple standard features in the future:

When you don't have a dock (or maybe a mini-dock, just to charge as you work, provide sound output, etc), you'd have a pico-projector built into the back of the phone to project a screen where you'd like, and that laser keyboard - possibly with some features we enjoy today to speed surface-based typing... maybe Swype, word prediction, etc.

That's what I'd expect in 2019.
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
Knowles2 9th May 2011
@geolemon You are right at the moment lasers do not do tactile feed back. But remember hearing about the Japanese research in using ultrasound to provide tactile feed back this could be combine with laser base keyboard.
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
gdstark13 9th May 2011
@geolemon

Instead of carrying around a screen (or projector) why not just project the info on whatever screen is convenient. So rather than monitors & such being attached to specific computers, they are simply available for use by any passing CPU. This could also mean that the "smartphone" is no longer the size of a calculator, but instead the size of a cordless microphone you wear on your shirt collar.

gary
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
pjamieson@... 9th May 2011
Wow .. not exactly what I was expecting to see in 2019 ..
and not what we will see.
Expect to see what is shown in CSI Miami's labs .. and OLED paper retractable displays. Everything will be touch and voice activated! C' Mon guys your kill'n me here .. this view of your future is so yesterday!!
I actually thought I was looking at something in the past !!
If this is what you expect the future to look like you better hold on to your shorts, cause this ain't it!!
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
neilpost 9th May 2011
@pjamieson@...
Ha-ha - they said 2019 not 2059 happy
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No evolution like this in 2019 because...
EricDeBerg 9th May 2011
As we are in a capitalist economical system based, we will not see this kind of change since 2019 because, although companies already masters this kind of technologies, they do retention on these technologies to sell more intermediate technologies only to do more money ...

This is the reason why we see little evolution each years on HDTV, for example. The HDTV 3D has been released only a few month after the Avatar movie has been a success... So it mean companies already masters cheap 3D technologies for Home uses, but retain it for consumers for some reasons, and on of this reason is to sell old technologies first... In other word : for capitalist reason. MONEY...

While our economic system will be based on capitalism, we will only see slower tech evolutions than it could be...
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
VRSpock 9th May 2011
@EricDeBerg
If I had money to invest in a company to make money selling technology, I would skip all the ancient crap and release something that sets all my competitors back into the stone age in comparison.

It a capitalist society, it wouldn't make since to sit on technology rather than blow your competition out of the water.
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
evilkillerwhale@... 9th May 2011
@EricDeBerg

Look at the troll!

3D TV still isn't here. We haven't figured out how to do it well enough for people to buy it yet. people hate wearing glasses for it, and even more so in their own homes.

Like an earlier reply, capitalist societies push for the biggest and best. Look at Intel's new line of processors that will be down to 14nm in a year and a half! That is less than 100 silicon atoms thick, for crying out loud. And they are working on atomic force microscope tips that will allow for even faster, cooler and smaller machines.

some industries kill technology, but it is very rare, and more based on service costs than anything.
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LCARS
jafryar@... 9th May 2011
I'd rather see a computer system and OS based on the LCARS (Library Computer Access and Retrieval System) with touchscreen.
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
Flybye 9th May 2011
Curved LCD: Certainly
Consistently typing on a hard surface: Not so much.

Go and and try it. Pretend type on your desk and let me know when your fingers grow another layer of skin.
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
Knowles2 9th May 2011
What i want to know is why no yet has combine a optical keyboard with a tablet with a stand built into the back of a tablet.

I thought about various designs myself and would probably pick up such a table if it was on sell.

The image does look cool through.
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
rick.sheeley 9th May 2011
Computer?

Hey, I'm holding out for my Daryl Hannah "pleasure replicant"....

Of course, that whole "death by atomic thighs" does have it's downfalls but.... that's the price of the future.

Also, isn't it ironic how much Tyrell resembles Bill Gates and Leon resembles Steve Ballmer?

Time to die.....
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Just Don't See It
SD_Johnny 9th May 2011
I just don't see this as our future. With my iPhone4 much more powerful than my original strawberry iMac, I see the small personal computer about the size of a matchbook built into everything with seamless voice recognition and voice commands.
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
allonmccall 9th May 2011
i feel that 2019 computing will still be very physical in nature- more along the lines of Tek War and Minority Report- where there are headsets, glasses, and or gloves to physicaly interact with virtual screens.

i agree with other posts in the areas of the fact that computers today are still trying to figure out simple tasks like fast booting and compatibility with drivers and software.

id love to see a Star Trek style computing system-( voice commands, neuron processors, fast booting etc)- i doubt the USS Enterprise took forever to boot before flight or between routine updates to the OS lol
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Energy consumption will be the biggest change
jacroberts 9th May 2011
8 years ago (2002) there was very little difference in the machine I was using then than now. In 2002 you could of had a 3 GHz hyper-threaded pentuim IV with a CRT monitor. Now you would probably have a Quad Core with a flat panel. The software is pretty much the same. I expect in 8 years time the software will be pretty mch the same. Internet speeds will be higher. Machines will have more cores. The biggest impact I can see is of low power consumption chips becoming the norm. With computing using as much energy as the airline industry and oil production set to fall and world energy demand increasing there must be great savings to be had by reducing the power consumption of computers.
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And Project Blade Runner runs Ubuntu? Interesting...
Kenny Strawn 9th May 2011
...Of course, Ubuntu is replacing GNOME with Unity, so how come there's a futuristic PC with a (by then) OS that is 9 years out of date?
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Contributr
RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
jperlow Updated - 9th May 2011
@Kenny Strawn Artist's conception. I'd expect by 2019 that Unity's main launcher can be configured as such to "auto-hide". Today, you can't even move it from the left-hand side of the screen. Also, Ubuntu doesn't have to run Unity, you can log in with "Classic". Listen to the podcast and read the supporting article, thanks.
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
dai@... 9th May 2011
did not see it

voice controlled and part of the household tv
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Voice Recog and wireless
psion@... 9th May 2011
It's been about ten years since I first saw IBM's ViaVoice. Then it required a special sound card and some horsepower. Recently I've been using Dragon Dictate with fairly good results. I imaging that in a few years it will really getting good.

And as soon as we can lose all these cables, the better.
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By 2019, we will have bifurcated
docpark 9th May 2011
By 2019, we will have bifurcated into those who have food and fuel and those who do not.
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
janitorman 9th May 2011
Don't see a podcast.. I have flashblock installed though, and cross-site scripting is a no-no anyway. Maybe if you posted a direct link to it below where it's supposed to be, those of us who choose to block this dangerous practice could see what you're talking about? Oh and if you'd just type in the words to what you're saying and put pictures in, that would be even better. I don't do well with sound or motion on my computer, that's what TV's are for, and I unplugged my TV long ago.
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
AKMARK5000 9th May 2011
Missing from the podcast is a mention of the driving force behind it all... money, money, money! let's not forget that the economic climate, monetary wealth and quality of life for a majority of the population looks pretty grim or at least scaled way back. So, with a hampered ability to sell, purchase and develop, how does the 2019 picture look (rhetorical question)?
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Getting rid of Keyboard and mouse
jaykapasi 9th May 2011
I believe that computer makers should focus on removing both keyboard and mouse as these are the most ugly and non intuitive devices to be working with. Even after working with computers for 10 years I forget the keys position. Mouse is not less complicated.
They should focus on some voice and camera based system so that we can work with computer like we are talking and interacting with something real and live
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
evilkillerwhale@... 9th May 2011
@jaykapasi

You can't remember where keys are after a decade and that is the computer industry's fault?
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
jaykapasi 10th May 2011
@evilkillerwhale@... This is not about someones capability. This is about something to be more intuitive and useful
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
gdstark13 9th May 2011
@jaykapasi

Totally agree. Keyboards in the future will be in antique stores, just like typewriters. And mice will once again be just small furry mammals.

gary
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Project bladerunner
CliffHinNJ 9th May 2011
I think that by the year 2019 we will all be using portable devices exclusively, be it a tablet, a smartphone or a thin and light laptop. Integral to this would be a central computing hub with massive storage that will be located in the home connected to a router and or the video distribution system in the home such as a FIOS hub. The portable devices will be constantly connected to this home hub via a fast wireless system be it 5g or 6g or whatever level we are up to by then. Your home storage will be mirrored in a cloud based system as well. Hopefully by then we will all have at least 100 mbps wifi in the home. We will need it for streaming all of our entertainment in the next generation 3D HD video.
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Where's the 3d?
Wookieplus 9th May 2011
A wraparound screen like the one portrayed could make your desktop 3d - eg you could have accessible units off to each side, and be able to move your point of vision forward and backward. So much better than selecting off of endless menus. Or is our organisation going to improve so much that we only need half a dozen icons on the desktop? happy
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
brainkilla 9th May 2011
It's nice to see that you think that in eight years time Linux will be the dominant OS, with Gnome 2 environment as its desktop happy
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
Ratclif Updated - 9th May 2011
Maybe by then Nvidia's Project Denver will have evolved enough to be competetive with Intel's high end cpu's. Will we have flying cars by then?
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
Brahyih 9th May 2011
Pathetic audio, no video, probably be the same in 2019.
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
thedudeistoocool@... 9th May 2011
How ironic is it that a podcast on "future technology" was created by journalists using inadequate and outdated technology. If these guys don't even have some "bleeding edge" tech readily at their disposal, how accurate can their predictions and assesments be ?

To me, the "podcast" is a step back to 1940's radio. Not only was the audio quality unworthy of a listen I must ask, haven't you guys ever heard of video ? or computer generated animations ?

Isn't it about time for ZDNet to hire some editors to prevent schlocky content (such as this story) from being posted ?
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RE: Project Blade Runner: Podcast
Traxxion 21st Oct
I'm inclined to side with geolemon. I think we are already heading toward phones becoming "normal" personal computers. Of course you will still need a full size terminal of some kind and it could well look something like this. Hopefully by then it will basically be a sort of wireless RDP/KVM which detects the close proximity(or connection) presence of the phone and provides you with a login screen - et voila - a workstation. This could extend to work and home meaning you can take everything with you wherever, whenever and would GREATLY reduce overall power consumption.

Standalone tablets, phones, gps (possibly), desktops and laptops will become special purchase items if you want a bit more va-va-voom.

Here is the other thing - physical will always rule. An optical keyboard might be handy to have in an emergency, but you absolutely will not want to work on one all day. Touchscreens and optical cannot replace the simple physical device and there is really no need to replace it either.

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