Imagine if you will: Doors that open as you walk up to them, appliances that activate when spoken to. Computer's one does not see, but that are a part of every aspect of ones' life. Sound too much like the distant future?

Research is currently being conducted that will make all of this seem as common place as the modern PC of today. For the technology to produce computers that are sewn into ones' clothing is not some distant dream, but quite close upon the horizon. It is currently possible to exchange limited amounts of information simply when shaking hands.

Or perhaps the idea of a computer that speaks when spoken to, is more to your liking? As we have all seen on the series, such machines are common place. The trick is to have a machine that can ‘understand’ what is being said.

Currently, research is being conducted to increase the ‘artificial’ intelligence of machines so that they can ‘observe’ the movement of an individuals lips as they speak. The idea being to have the machines ‘associate’ the words spoken with the movement of the speakers' lips.

Should this research prove out, it will move us a long way towards breaking AI’s toughest current limitations.