From mobile phones to Siri – most of your favorite tech can be traced back to ISI – USC Viterbi

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Internet

Like in 1972 USC Information Science Institute (ISI) was being formed, scientists across the country were connecting remote computers from different organizations to create what would eventually become the “Internet”. This put the researchers at ISI in a perfect position to jump directly into the wild world of networked computers. Establish the Internet’s internal procedures with Request for Comments (RFCs); creating the Internet’s “phone directory” with the Domain Name System (DNS); building a system of “points” to divide the Internet into .com, .edu, org and so on; Development of rules of the road using Internet Protocols (IPs) – Some of the groundbreaking Internet developments made at ISI are still in use today.

Laptops

Network-connected portable computing device – sound familiar? In the year There were no laptops in 1974, but ISI researchers were working on what would eventually lead to them. Portable remote access terminal. The terminal developed by ISI was so innovative and convenient that it was used by the director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) – the agency that maintained the growing ARPAnet (predecessor to the Internet).

Smartphones

In the year There were no smartphones in 1979, but thanks to ISI, it was the first. Packet radio terminal. This was a portable system for radio communication with the help of a keyboard and display screen. It looks a little like a smartphone! Tom Ellis, one of the founders of ISI, led the team developing the first packet radio terminal, which would actually be the forerunner of the smartphone.

Zoom, Skype, Webcast and more.

In the year In 1974, decades before the world came to rely on real-time Internet connectivity (zoom, anyone?), ISI’s Danny Cohen was the first to implement it. Online voice communications. Two years later, Cohen and his team hold the first teleconference on the ARPAnet – see this 1978 video To see how it went. A notable participant was Robert “Bob” Parker, who came to ISI, where he would spend more than 25 years, after this great teleconference. This technology, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), is fundamental to webcams, conference calls, Skype, Zoom, and more.

Online videos

Without internet Silly cat videos?! That was the case until 1985, when the video came online thanks to Cohen and ISI researcher Stephen Casner. Packet video It was first transmitted by satellite from the ISI rooftop in Marina del Rey, California. Kanner standardized protocols for transporting audio and video over the Internet—protocols that still today provide us with online video, among other things, cats playing the piano.

Live streaming of multimedia

Expanding on real-time online communication technology, in 1986, Cohen and Kasner conducted the first real-time multimedia teleconference on the Internet using packet video, communicating with each other simultaneously through audio, video, text, and graphics. Casner followed that up in 1992 when he helped create multicast Internet multimedia – The ability to broadcast audio and video over the Internet to hundreds or thousands of people at the same time, more than two or three. In the year In 1994, this concept was used to broadcast a Rolling Stones concert around the world, an early foreshadowing of Netflix, Disney+ and Apple TVs. As the song says: You can’t always find what you’re looking for, but sometimes if you try, you can, you will… The whole future of online entertainment!

Alexa, Siri, Chatbots and more

To ask Alexa for the daily weather forecast, Alexa must be able to understand your words – this is done through natural language processing (NLP). A major step forward in NLP research was made in 1988 when ISI artificial intelligence researcher William Mann invented it. The theory of writing structure, an explanatory theory that unifies written texts. The work became the basis for a great deal of NLP research, which eventually brings us to where we are now: Alexa reports that it will be sunny and 75 degrees Fahrenheit again at the ISI offices.

Online shopping

Purchased something online recently? In the year You can thank Clifford Neumann and the pioneering ISI team for creating two of the first electronic payment systems for micropayments on the World Wide Web in 1993: NetCash and NetCheque. First, they enabled new Internet services that were previously impractical due to the lack of built-in, secure and efficient payment methods to pay for data online. The following year, Danny Cohen created the FastXchange brokerage system, a pioneering online business.

virtual reality

Some technology Sounds Like science fiction; Another technology creates science fiction. In the year In 1999, ISI was launched USC Institute for Innovative Technologies (ICT), a pioneer in virtual reality and other immersive technologies for military and civilian uses. A decade later, ICT’s work – including 3D special effects – could be seen on the big screen in an Academy Award-winning science fiction film. kind of.

Want to discuss the future of computer research? USC’s Information Science Institute has a symposium for that September 12-13, 2022. Register here for free To participate online or in person in Los Angeles, Boston and Arlington.

Published on September 13, 2022

Last updated on September 13, 2022.

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