In addition to its role in the Internet of things, DSP analytics should enable robots to interact with us with nearly human naturalness.

Assuming you've already pictured a world in which everything is connected through the cloud – your car, your home security system, your coffeemaker – now add this: Imagine communicating with all those devices perfectly naturally using touch, voice and gesture.

The secret to such a world is DSP analytics, an area in which TI is the industry's undisputed leader. It may quickly make today's remote controls and other interfaces as dated as rotary dial phones.

Digital signal processors are super-fast specialized microchips that have already helped enable the cellphone and full-motion video streaming. Now they're poised to fundamentally change the way we interact with the world.

The analytics capability inside DSPs is all about monitoring real-world conditions, making rapid decisions and then taking action. Cruise-control technology that adapts a vehicle's speed to surrounding traffic is an early application, but that's just the start. Next up:

• Facial recognition systems that eliminate both the need for passwords and anyone's ability to breach your security. Simply look at a screen in your hotel room in Mumbai and you've got access to everything available to you through the cloud: your bank balance, a video link to your spouse in Barcelona, you name it.
• Intuitive control of household appliances: You have an early meeting, so tell your coffee maker to have a full pot ready at 6 a.m. Meantime your air conditioning system texts you that it has determined it's operating at less than full efficiency, it has contacted your AC service company, and here's a list of times when a technician is available.
• Your arms are full of groceries and it's just starting to rain. But your front door recognizes you, and it graciously unlocks and opens as you approach.
• Your son lost his backpack, so you ask your phone, "Where's Ethan's backpack?" Locating it via a GPS tag in the label, your phone immediately replies, "In his locker at school." Problem solved.

There's much more as well, including robots that interact with us with nearly human naturalness thanks to their ability to take into account subtle human cues of gesture, tone and facial expression. TI engineers are confident DSP analytics will significantly enhance people's safety, security and convenience in myriad ways, many of which no one has perhaps even imagined yet.