Computer Vision News - November 2016

We always feel that, in the time we’re in, we’re experiencing something extraordinary and that our experience is different and unique. Things must be happening faster for us, but maybe it felt that way for our grandparents as well. Ralph: What will our grandchildren say 50 years from now about our times? Michael: You could argue that change is more rapid now. On one hand, a lot of the change is happening in a digital space where manufacturing costs are low. The apps and products that are changing our lives are easy to experiment with, roll out, and so on. So in some sense, you don’t have to set up a factory to roll out a new app. In that sense, change could happen faster. The other thing is that the world is relatively rich in terms of personal income, investment income, and so on. The average standard of living is high. Wealth in many countries is relatively high. I don’t know whether it’s at historic highs, but I would not be surprised. That results in a tremendous amount of investment in all kinds of things. I also think that at this point in history, people have become more educated than they have ever been, which also means there are more people with the abilities to invent, create, and push new ideas. It would not be surprising to me if the pace of innovation was actually greater now than in the past. Ralph: Which innovation that arrived, or that did not arrive, surprised you in the last couple of decades? Michael: The thing that surprises me the most is the telephone that I’m holding. It’s a computer that is in your pocket and it is more powerful than anything I could have ever imagined as a child. I liked Star Trek as a kid, and they had these communicating devices that they would open up. They could scan things. They could tell you things about your health. They could communicate. That was really pure science fiction. The fact that this device is able to communicate wirelessly, and I can communicate with people around the world. I can’t communicate with other planets or space ships, but it’s a pretty remarkable device. Ralph: And what technical solution did you expect to be invented, but is still delayed for some reason? Michael: As a kid, one thing that fascinated me was supersonic travel, the idea that you could travel faster than sound. There would be this sonic boom. The idea that humans were pushing the boundaries of physical space by traveling faster “The thing that surprises me the most is the telephone that I’m holding, more powerful than anything I could have ever imagined as a child. ” Interview with Michael Black 17 BEST OF ECCV