The Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) is the “cradle” of products that created the first laser printer to turn digital text into paper documents, a graphical interface with windows and a mouse cursor, concepts Ethernet connects to the local computer network.
In 1978, PARC launched Xerox NoteTaker, one of the first laptops in the world. In addition, we also have WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), a web-based text editor that allows users to see content appearing on the input box.
Many years before the iPhone was born, PARC created PARCTab, a miniature computer that could access the Internet, send emails.
“We (researchers at PARC) are always inventing new technologies for the future, towards the advancement of science and technology, helping shape and change the world,” PARC CEO Tolga Kurtoglu told Digital. Trends on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Xerox PARC. After half a century, that goal has been achieved and achieved great success.
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| Alto is a personal computer born from the PARC research room. Photo: parc.com . |
Always looking to the future
“The only instruction Xerox has given PARC is to create an ‘office’ of the future,” said Michael Hiltzik, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of the book Dealers of Lightning talking about Xerox’s history. PARC.
In the 1970s, Bob Taylor, who ran the computer science lab at PARC, thought about computers that were more than just computational, but instead could help users get things done. job.
Under the guidance of Taylor and Bert Sutherland – one of the first computer scientists – PARC began its mission to find new ways to interact with machines to improve lives.
Some time later, Chuck Thacker and Butler Lampson created the first personal computer called Alto. Bob Metcalfe likes to learn about computer networks and invented Ethernet, Gary Starkweather continues to study laser printers, a device that was not respected by parent company Xerox.
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| The graphical interface and the laser printer were developed by Xerox PARC. Photo: Xerox . |
PARC is also the workplace of many “legendary” figures in the technology village. Larry Tesler, the “father” of copy and paste content on computers, who died in February also worked at PARC.
After 50 years of creating the “office of the future,” Kurtoglu said that by 2020, PARC’s mission will change. Now, PARC focuses on creating tools that help improve productivity every day. One of them is a smart user interface instead of a graphical interface.
Specifically, the computer will make suggestions based on the user’s habits, even predicting and handling in advance the tasks that the user can perform.
To develop this technology, PARC has built an artificial intelligence (AI) system with the help of Xerox, combining natural language processing systems to create automation tools.
If in the past, making computers easy to access users was the goal of PARC, now their mission is to help users access to artificial intelligence.
To serve the needs of home manufacturing, PARC also studies 3D printing technology using materials such as liquid metal to shorten production time, save costs but be more efficient than metal powders. Finally, the Internet of Things platform helps technology devices interact with each other through the Internet.
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| Over the past 50 years, it has witnessed the birth of many of the technologies we still use today. Photo: Mkaz . |
Strengthen cooperation
In 1979, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs visited PARC. This is considered to be the place to transfer ideas for him to create Lisa with Macintosh, the computer controlled by mouse and graphical interface.
In the past, PARC was primarily working independently or solely helped by Xerox, but the current trend of PARC is to collaborate with anyone to realize the idea.
“We are always looking for partners who can bring technology to market,” Kurtoglu said. That means PARC will actively work with many parties to improve the product, providing the best user experience.
That is the vision of PARC in the next 50 years.