Knowledge Navigator

The Knowledge Navigator is a concept described by former Apple Computer CEO John Sculley in his 1987 book, Odyssey. It describes a device that can access a large networked database of HyperText information, and use software agents to assist searching for information. Apple produced several concept Videos showcasing the idea. All of them featured a Tablet style computer with numerous advanced capabilities, including an excellent text-to-speech system with no hint of "computerese", a Gesture based interface resembling the MultiTouch interface later used on the IPhone and an equally powerful Speech Recognition system, allowing the user to converse with the system via an animated "butler" as the software agent (Intelligent Software Assistant).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_Navigator

Watch the Video at http://www.digibarn.com/collections/movies/knowledge-navigator.html

• it links to Jon Udell 2003 post: Clearly natural language is taking a lot longer than the pioneers expected. Back in 1953 researchers thought it was going to be a five year project. No-one in 2003 is so optimistic.