Scientists hail ultrafast Internet – High-speed networks facilitate ‘grid computing’

The arrival of ultrafast Internet service will let Americans tap powerful computing resources now out of their reach, changing the way we work and play, experts predict.

By Adam Jones, Cox News Service

http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/technology/article/0,1299,DRMN_49_2622250,00.html

Future high-speed networks will broaden the use of "grid computing," which links powerful supercomputers so that their power is available on demand across a wide geographic area, much like electricity is today.

Grid computing is now mainly used by scientific researchers for projects that require massive number-crunching, like modeling nuclear explosions.

It’s too expensive and the software is too complicated for most private-sector users, said Charlie Catlett, a senior fellow at Argonne National Laboratory who directs the National Science Foundation’s TeraGrid project, an effort to create an even more advanced network for select scientific communities.

But grid computing will probably be widely available to the business community in 18 months, Catlett said, and eventually consumers too will have the connection speed needed to use this resource.

Combining grid computing with high-speed access will fundamentally change lives, said Hui Zhang, associate professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University.

For instance, a financial Web site could let users not only analyze a stock portfolio but also predict stock movements and test-run stocks in the market. Only those with access to supercomputers can perform such operations now.

Some of the most useful changes will flow from what software developers consider a key application for the future Internet: tele-immersion.

"Tele-immersion is a way of using virtual reality," said Jaron Lanier, former lead scientist of the National Tele-immersion Initiative, a coalition of research universities studying advanced Internet applications.

"Instead of creating potentially very strange and fantastic worlds, what you’re going to do is create the illusion that people in different cities are together in the same place at the same time," he said.

The technology uses multiple cameras to send video images to people using special glasses that create a 3-D effect. It allows people to communicate naturally, using eye contact and body language along with speech and facial expressions.

That opens up a wealth of possible uses. Telecommuting could be as productive as working at the office. Doctors will be able to examine patients remotely and provide medical advice and diagnoses more efficiently. And far-flung relatives will be able to gather in virtual family rooms.

Lanier predicts that tele-immersion will be on the market by 2010 but admits it might be later if national data networks aren’t upgraded by then.

The technology requires not only high transmission speeds – about 100 times better than standard broadband – but also high levels of reliability because variations in speed can create motion sickness for users.

Scientists agree that a reliable, secure high-speed network will remake how we live our lives, but they acknowledge that they can’t predict everything.

"In the 1970s we did e-mail and we did a little bit of file transfer, and we did some remote log-ins," said Larry Landweber, professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin’s computer science department. "But nobody had a notion of any of the applications we are currently using."

In the future, "there will be many exciting applications even today we can imagine," Zhang said. "But the most exciting ones are the ones we cannot imagine today."