Your phone or computer will be able to generate a lifelike digital image of your face, showing you listening or even talking. You really will be talking – it’s just that you’ve taken the call at home and are dripping wet from the shower. As you talk, your phone will synthesize an image of you in your most businesslike suit. Your facial expressions will match your words (remember, small computers are going to get very powerful). Just as easily, your phone will be able to transmit an image of your words issuing from the mouth of someone else, or from an idealized version of you. If you are talking to someone you’ve never met, and you don’t want to show a mole or a flabby chin, your caller won’t be able to tell if you really look so much like Cary Grant (or Meg Ryan) or whether you’re getting a little help from your computer.
Predictor: Gates, Bill
Prediction, in context:In his 1995 book “The Road Ahead,” Microsoft CEO Bill Gates writes: ”As computers become more powerful, it will be possible for a standard PC to fabricate realistic synthetic images. Your phone or computer will be able to generate a lifelike digital image of your face, showing you listening or even talking. You really will be talking – it’s just that you’ve taken the call at home and are dripping wet from the shower. As you talk, your phone will synthesize an image of you in your most businesslike suit. Your facial expressions will match your words (remember, small computers are going to get very powerful). Just as easily, your phone will be able to transmit an image of your words issuing from the mouth of someone else, or from an idealized version of you. If you are talking to someone you’ve never met, and you don’t want to show a mole or a flabby chin, your caller won’t be able to tell if you really look so much like Cary Grant (or Meg Ryan) or whether you’re getting a little help from your computer.”
Biography:Bill Gates, the most influential technology entrepreneur of the late 20th century, was the primary author of the prediction-packed 1995 book “The Road Ahead” and is the founder and CEO of Microsoft Corporation. (Entrepreneur/Business Leader.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Communication
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: The Road Ahead (book)
Title, headline, chapter name: Chapter 7: Implications for Business
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 151
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne