alt=Apple Knowledge Navigator video screenshot|thumb|Still from Apple's Knowledge Navigator video<!-- thumb|right|300px|Knowledge Navigator 1987 mock-up. The device opened like a book, with the "spine" lifting the face to an easy reading angle, and acting as a carrying handle when closed. The dark circle at the top is a video camera similar to a modern [[webcam, the slot in the upper right holds a memory card, and the grills on either side of the screen are speakers. In one featurette, the screen is also shown acting as a scanner.]] image deleted-->

Coined in 1987, the term Knowledge Navigator described a future computing system and how people might use it to navigate worlds of knowledge. In a sense, the user is actually the "Knowledge Navigator," though the term often refers to the system’s primary interface, a tablet computer. That part (i.e., the tablet) often stands for the whole system. The term is also the title of an Apple "vision video." The concept was described by former Apple Computer CEO John Sculley and John A. Byrne in their book, Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple. <blockquote>"A future-generation Macintosh, which we should have early in the twenty-first century, might well be a wonderful fantasy machine called the Knowledge Navigator, a discoverer of worlds, a tool as galvanizing as the printing press. Individuals could use it to drive through libraries, museums, databases, or institutional archives. This tool wouldn't just take you to the doorstep of these great resources as sophisticated computers do now; it would invite you deep inside its secrets, interpreting and explaining—converting vast quantities of information into personalized and understandable knowledge." </blockquote>

Technologies

Apple’s Knowledge Navigator video illustrated the use of a series of technologies including:

  • Tablet computer
  • Foldable touch screen
  • Touch interface
  • Memory cards
  • University research networks
  • Hypertext, across distributed databases
  • Simulation software, for authoring and experimenting
  • Video conferencing
  • Collaborative work
  • Intelligent agents, with voice recognition and synthesis

Scenarios

Apple produced several concept videos showcasing the idea:

  • Knowledge Navigator (1987)
  • HyperCard: 1992 (1987)
  • Project 2000 (1988)
  • Grey Flannel Navigator (1988)
  • High School 2000 (1988)
  • Healthcare 2008 (1988)

The videos were produced by The Kenwood Group in San Francisco and directed by Randy Field. The director of photography was Bill Zarchy. Jane Hernandez was Kenwood’s producer; Christina Crowley managed Kenwood. The post-production mix was done by Gary Clayton at Russian Hill Recording for The Kenwood Group. The product industrial design was created by Gavin Ivester and Adam Grosser of Apple design.

The concepts behind Knowledge Navigator owe a debt to many pioneers, especially Alan Kay and his vision of the Dynabook. Liebhold had worked with Kay at Atari, and Kay met weekly with Sculley, who wrote, “When I trace the origins of the most exciting and outrageous ideas behind the personal computer revolution, most paths lead directly to Alan.” The video’s project schedule was six weeks from start to keynote. The budget was $60,000.

The music featured in this video is Georg Anton Benda's Harpsichord Concerto in C.

Reception

In 1988, John Markoff wrote in The New York Times:<blockquote>“During the last year John Sculley, Apple's chairman, has widely shown a public relations film called ‘Knowledge Navigator’ that features an advanced PC. In Apple's vision, future users will interact with computers capable of displaying TV-like animation and speaking to them.”</blockquote>The software agent in the video has been discussed in the domain of human–computer interaction. It was criticized as being an unrealistic portrayal of the capacities of any software agent in the foreseeable future, or even in a distant future.

Some visions put forth by proponents of the Semantic Web have been likened to that of the Knowledge Navigator by Marshall and Shipman, who argue that some of these visions "ignore the difficulty of scaling knowledge-based systems to reason across domains, like Apple's Knowledge Navigator," and conclude that, as of 2003, "scenarios of the complexity of [a previously quoted] Knowledge Navigator-like approach to interacting with people and things in the world seem unlikely."

Siri

New York Times tech columnist John Markoff has linked Knowledge Navigator and Siri.

The notion of Siri was firmly planted at Apple 25 years ago though “Knowledge Navigator” with the voice of the assistant was only a concept prototype. In one of the videos, a man is seen asking the assistant to search for an article published 5 years before his time, the assistant finds it and tells the article being dated to 2006, and due to this we can conclude that the video is set to take place in September 2011. In October 2011, Apple relaunched Siri, a voice activated personal assistant software vaguely similar to that aspect of the Knowledge Navigator just a month after their initial prediction.

See also

  • "1984" (advertisement)
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Clippy
  • Dynabook
  • Hyperland
  • Knowledge visualization
  • Memex
  • Office of the future
  • Starfire video prototype
  • Technological singularity

References

  • The entire "professor" video (5 min 45 s)
  • "Future Shock" a similar video, also made by Apple (11 min 54 s)
  • "The Story of Apple's Knowledge Navigator", a video of Hugh Dubberly telling the story of making Knowledge Navigator, recorded April 1, 2024 (59 min 9 s)