There are satellites in space that can tell you where you are at any given
moment. Military users of global positioning system (GPS) satellites can determine
someone's location within six inches. Civilian applications are
accurate within a few feet. Knowledge engineers like Richard Poppen and Linnea
Dunn are working to adapt this technology for everyday use.
"I enjoy my job enormously," Poppen says. "I'm somewhat luckier than other
people."
Poppen's company has developed an in-car computer mapping system. Here's
how it works: You get in the car and select where you want to go. The computer
checks your location with the GPS satellite and recommends the best route
to your destination. The program is a hit with rental car companies and a
growing number of motorists. "It's really popular in Japan," says Poppen.
Linnea Dunn works at a nonprofit organization in Sunnyvale, California,
dedicated to providing adaptive technology to people who need it. She is developing
a portable orientation tool called Atlas Strider for the blind and visually
impaired.
"The GPS is broadcasting a signal, and if you get the signal you can figure
out where you are pretty cheaply," she explains. Combined with a talking laptop
computer, Atlas Strider describes where you are in easy-to-understand terms.
"I'm at the corner of Main Street and First," mimics Dunn. "You don't describe
things to a blind person the way you do to a sighted person. You say, 'This
is a one-way street -- or two-way street,' and a lot of the times they'll
want to avoid major streets."
Dunn's career has taken many twists. She developed her skill with computers
while doing graduate work on the Stanford linear accelerator -- a high-profile
experiment testing electrons and protons. She emerged with a master's degree
in physics and an ability to work through real-life problems with a computer.
"Computer work was really a sideline," Dunn says. But it was a sideline
that led her to work in Silicon Valley. "The field of computers pays a lot
more than academics, and I like to solve puzzles. What companies do is give
you good puzzles and a good living."
Poppen has a master's degree in mathematics. "It was the 1960s and there
were very few computer science courses. Computers were something I was doing
in the summer. I sort of trained myself for this position."
Poppen started doing mathematics for people who didn't think they needed
mathematics. He says computers can mimic human thinking -- called artificial
intelligence -- if you present a problem as a mathematical formula.
"Translating it into math makes it easier to think about solving the problem.
Then it takes mapping it back to a real-world solution the user wants."
Poppen has worked on plenty of projects that were mathematically interesting
but not very useful to the population in general. Satellite-aided mapping
is something he can talk about with anyone.
"I even have the hope of seeing it used when I pull up beside someone at
a light," he says. "That's tremendously gratifying!"
Dunn also hopes to see her system in use. One of the blind salespeople
at her organization told her that many visually impaired people will find
her system incredibly helpful.
"This gives them a little more control over their environment," says Dunn.
"To be doing something workable that has obvious benefits and is a good puzzle
feels good."
So what's next for these knowledge engineers? Poppen wants to adapt the
in-car mapping system to know a driver's habits.
"If it's 8:30 on a weekday, it would figure you're going to work," he says.
"It would track current traffic congestion and speed and wouldn't give you
the average best route to work, but the best route right now."
Dunn is happy doing what she's doing. "The world's different now than it
was 10 years ago, and 10 years from now it will be different again." She doesn't
worry about the future.
"I'm a puzzle solver -- and the world seems to treat puzzle solvers really
well."