We've already heard plenty about the office of the future. We're bracing ourselves for video mail, instant video conferencing, and smart ID cards that let your colleagues contact you when you're away from your desk.
But the staff at Olivetti's research laboratory in Cambridge, England, have been living with just that technology for more than two years. In what they call their "Active Office Environment," a custom network transports video data at 50 Mbps, and a system of infra-red badges and detectors allows the office to keep track of your whereabouts as you wander.
Because the workstations, which are equipped with video cameras and badge- monitoring equipment, can differentiate between badges, there's no need to be tied to your desk. Just position yourself in front of the machine of your choice and your work will appear on the screen. To contact a colleague, specify a name and the computer will route your video message to the terminal nearest that person. If you want to talk face to face, check the directory to find your colleague's current location in the building.
Straight away this raises some urgent questions about privacy. The most commonly voiced is "Do they have badge detectors in the lavatories?" The answer: No. The loo is the one place where your movements are not recorded. A more serious concern is the possibility of video spying. Olivetti's solution: Make surveillance a two-way street. You cannot call up a video image of someone else's current activity nor query the location of his or her badge without displaying written and visual information about yourself. And pressing a big red button beside the workstation will stop all video intrusions.
But the staff seem decidedly phlegmatic about the whole thing. "It's not scary," says Chris Turner, a research engineer. "You just get used to it." In fact, he claims the system gives everyone more privacy. "If you look on the list and see that four people are all sitting in one room, you assume they're having a meeting, and you don't disturb them," he says.
And just because people are free to wander around the office, it doesn't mean they actually do it. No one uses a colleague's workstation without permission.
All the same, there is a disconcerting sensation of being watched. If you're walking down a hallway and all the phones ring as you pass them, it's certain a call for you is being automatically redirected as you move. "In this office," says Chris Turner, "one thing's certain: When the phone rings, it's for you."
ELECTRIC WORD
Ubiquitous Computing in Action
Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas
