Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/786015
44 The PCB Design Magazine • February 2017 cations and requirements. The question would then be, "Are you the kind of person who would argue with your design system?" If so, then who would win? Farfetched thinking, you say? Perhaps. But this wouldn't be the first time that the entertain- ment industry has driven advances in technol- ogy. Think about the popularity of cell phones, which rose dramatically many years ago because of the introduction of the flip phone. The con- sumer market was ready for that kind of tech- nology because they had already seen it in use on "Star Trek" with their hand-held commu- nicators. The movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" showed the astronauts using flat portable view- ing devices that they could use for reading news and reports just as we do with our tablets today. But don't downplay the time-tested method that we have now of driving technology en- hancements by user requests. Your input will help transition today's dreams into tomorrow's realities. So, keep logging those enhancement requests and bug reports with your CAD vendor, stay involved with your user groups, and do all you can to make sure your voices are heard. Early on in my design career I was laying out boards with tape and dollies on a drafting table. I then digitized those tape-up designs, and eventually I started using some of the early CAD systems that often needed more hands-on help than they were worth. How many of you remember working on a monochrome moni- tor? To display different layers, you had to dif- ferentiate them with different fill patterns be- cause the monitor only had one color. I had no idea in those days that advanced design auto- mation would one day be available to help with my work. Back then, if you wanted to make a change to a circuit, you would have to manually recreate it. Now what was tedious work can be done in a fraction of the time using CAD tools with automated dynamic editors and externally connected simulators. If we had been able to see back then what kind of tools we would have to work with today, it would have been a mind-blowing experience. And now, seeing just how far we've come over the years with design tool technology, we natu- rally wonder, "What's next?" Yesterday we knew with absolute certainty that laying out a board required tape and dollies on a drafting table, and today we know with ab- solute certainty that laying out a board requires the assistance of advance automation in our CAD tools. I wonder what we'll know with ab- solute certainty tomorrow. Perhaps, at the end of the work day in the future, PCB designers will close up shop with a conversation like this: "Will that be all, Mr. Stark?" "Yes, Jarvis, goodnight." PCBDESIGN Tim Haag is manager of customer support and training at Intercept Technology. DESIGN TOOLS OF TOMORROW: A REAL "MARVEL" The technological complexities inherent in developing perceptions for machines, as well as the verifi- cation and validation of these tools, have been eased to a large extent by the advancements of AI technology. "With Brain Computer Interface (BCI), AI can power future machines to under- stand human thoughts and emotions, even with- out physical or vocal communication," noted Frost & Sullivan T echVision Senior Research Ana- lyst Debarun Guha Thakurta. Leveraging convergent ideas with technologies, AI can open up new horizons in groundbreaking applications. "AI is being widely used across sectors like healthcare, automotive, banking and finance, and aerospace and defense due to its ability to understand patterns in data and make highly accurate predictions and simulations," noted Guha Thakurta. Advances in AI Will Help Machines Understand Human Thoughts