IBM Eye

No, it’s not some eater of souls kind of voodoo, it’s actually quite a simple concept.

IBM researchers have developed a mechanism for separating the the body of a PC - the processor, memory, keyboard, display and so forth - from its soul - the data, applications, and personal settings. I guess it’s not too much of a stretch to define those attributes of a machine that make it “yours” as opposed to just another machine - are the memories, experiences, preferences and coffee-stains-on-the-keyboard.

From CNet News.com: IBM brains capture a PC’s soul

Researchers at IBM are testing software that would let you tote your home or office desktop around on an iPod or similar portable device so that you could run it on any PC.

The virtual computer user environment setup is called SoulPad, and consumers install it from a x86-based home or office PC. SoulPad uses a USB (universal serial bus) or FireWire connection to access the network cards for connecting to the Internet, the computer’s display, the keyboard, the main processor and the memory, but not the hard disk.

After the person disconnects the system, SoulPad saves all work to the device, including browser cookies or other digital signatures that a PC keeps in its short-term memory.

It’s still in testing, but the concept is an interesting one.

Personally I envision a future where computing hardware is ubiquitous and standardised - all we need provide to work on such hardware is the data itself - possibly in the form of small plugin devices that are easily carried on your person. Think flash memory with the storage capacity and access speed of today’s largest hard drives … we’re not too far away. We just need to divorce ourselves from the legacy computing platforms we currently tie ourselves to.