{"id":1654,"date":"2008-01-16T17:40:13","date_gmt":"2008-01-16T22:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/?p=1654"},"modified":"2014-12-16T17:40:25","modified_gmt":"2014-12-16T22:40:25","slug":"barraged-information-will-happen-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2008\/01\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\/","title":{"rendered":"We\u2019re barraged by information\u2014what will happen when it\u2019s too much?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sanjeev Khudanpur, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, Center for Language and Speech Processing<\/em>
\n\"Sanjeev<\/a>Information overload. That\u2019s indeed what we\u2019re facing.<\/p>\n

On any given day, 1,000 articles about my area of research may appear in various publications\u2014and the same holds true for other engineers, scientists, and doctors. Twenty years ago, a doctor wouldn\u2019t have been faulted for not having read a study in an obscure medical journal that could have prevented a patient\u2019s death. Today, if the information is out there, you\u2019re accountable.<\/p>\n

Email has grown out of control. For the past six years, every three months, I\u2019ve filed the emails I didn\u2019t have time to read, intending to get to them. This past spring the number of emails in that folder had grown to 1,000\u2014not counting spam.<\/p>\n

The enormity of information has repercussions for industry where critical data need to be gathered and synthesized. Companies need feedback from customers around the world about products. Are there recurring problems? Patterns of opinion?<\/p>\n

All of this presents the Center for Language and Speech Processing (CLSP) with a major new challenge\u2014creating digital tools that enable computers to understand and categorize what constitutes relevant, critical information.<\/p>\n

As I see it, there are two pieces to the problem. There\u2019s \u201cthe fire hose\u201d: There\u2019s so much information coming at you at once, how do you organize it? The other is \u201cthe ocean\u201d: How do you fish out the most pertinent information and reel in just what you want?<\/p>\n

Language is ambiguous, variable, and context dependent. So we\u2019re investigating how to represent the meaning of a sentence, of words, so that a computer can understand and assess it well enough to index it correctly. Right now, under \u201cfriendly\u201d conditions we can do this. But \u201cfriendly\u201d conditions mean the speaker is fluent in American English, isn\u2019t too old, too young, or emotional, and there\u2019s no reverberation. These are big limitations, so interpreting text and understanding the intent of communication is a much larger problem than just writing down words.<\/p>\n

In the future, computers will be smarter and will serve our individual information needs. While this will impact politics, industry, and consumers, it will be especially important in education. Eventually, every kid who goes to school will bring along a device that records, indexes, and is able to contextualize information. The device will be able to recall all that was said, read, and seen that day, provide a reminder about an assignment, a sample math problem from a week before, and a relevant part of a lecture.<\/p>\n

Communications have exploded. The CLSP is enhancing our ability to take advantage of and manage information, ultimately improving communication between people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sanjeev Khudanpur, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, Center for Language and Speech Processing Information overload. That\u2019s indeed what we\u2019re facing. On any given day, 1,000 articles about my area of research may appear in various publications\u2014and the same holds true for other engineers, scientists, and doctors. Twenty years ago, a doctor wouldn\u2019t have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research-development","issue-winter-2008"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWe\u2019re barraged by information\u2014what will happen when it\u2019s too much? - JHU Engineering Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2008\/01\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"We\u2019re barraged by information\u2014what will happen when it\u2019s too much? - JHU Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sanjeev Khudanpur, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, Center for Language and Speech Processing Information overload. That\u2019s indeed what we\u2019re facing. On any given day, 1,000 articles about my area of research may appear in various publications\u2014and the same holds true for other engineers, scientists, and doctors. Twenty years ago, a doctor wouldn\u2019t have...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2008\/01\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"JHU Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-01-16T22:40:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-12-16T22:40:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Sanjeev-Khudanpur.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Abby Lattes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Abby Lattes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2008\\\/01\\\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2008\\\/01\\\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Abby Lattes\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0244393be370fbc3ead8ec26062e9742\"},\"headline\":\"We\u2019re barraged by information\u2014what will happen when it\u2019s too much?\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-01-16T22:40:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-12-16T22:40:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2008\\\/01\\\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":467,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2008\\\/01\\\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/Sanjeev-Khudanpur.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Research & Development\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2008\\\/01\\\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2008\\\/01\\\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2008\\\/01\\\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\\\/\",\"name\":\"We\u2019re barraged by information\u2014what will happen when it\u2019s too much? - JHU Engineering Magazine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2008\\\/01\\\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2008\\\/01\\\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/Sanjeev-Khudanpur.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-01-16T22:40:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-12-16T22:40:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0244393be370fbc3ead8ec26062e9742\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2008\\\/01\\\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2008\\\/01\\\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2008\\\/01\\\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/Sanjeev-Khudanpur.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/Sanjeev-Khudanpur.jpg\",\"width\":117,\"height\":155,\"caption\":\"Sanjeev Khudanpur\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2008\\\/01\\\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"We\u2019re barraged by information\u2014what will happen when it\u2019s too much?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/\",\"name\":\"JHU Engineering Magazine\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0244393be370fbc3ead8ec26062e9742\",\"name\":\"Abby Lattes\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c56cb7af5427f847aa288542444ba9ff3d2107bf85dc6c6d44a4d1315608258d?s=96&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c56cb7af5427f847aa288542444ba9ff3d2107bf85dc6c6d44a4d1315608258d?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c56cb7af5427f847aa288542444ba9ff3d2107bf85dc6c6d44a4d1315608258d?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Abby Lattes\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"We\u2019re barraged by information\u2014what will happen when it\u2019s too much? - JHU Engineering Magazine","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2008\/01\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"We\u2019re barraged by information\u2014what will happen when it\u2019s too much? - JHU Engineering Magazine","og_description":"Sanjeev Khudanpur, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, Center for Language and Speech Processing Information overload. That\u2019s indeed what we\u2019re facing. On any given day, 1,000 articles about my area of research may appear in various publications\u2014and the same holds true for other engineers, scientists, and doctors. Twenty years ago, a doctor wouldn\u2019t have...","og_url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2008\/01\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\/","og_site_name":"JHU Engineering Magazine","article_published_time":"2008-01-16T22:40:13+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-12-16T22:40:25+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Sanjeev-Khudanpur.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Abby Lattes","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Abby Lattes","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2008\/01\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2008\/01\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\/"},"author":{"name":"Abby Lattes","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/#\/schema\/person\/0244393be370fbc3ead8ec26062e9742"},"headline":"We\u2019re barraged by information\u2014what will happen when it\u2019s too much?","datePublished":"2008-01-16T22:40:13+00:00","dateModified":"2014-12-16T22:40:25+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2008\/01\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\/"},"wordCount":467,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2008\/01\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Sanjeev-Khudanpur.jpg","articleSection":["Research & Development"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2008\/01\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2008\/01\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\/","url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2008\/01\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\/","name":"We\u2019re barraged by information\u2014what will happen when it\u2019s too much? - JHU Engineering Magazine","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2008\/01\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2008\/01\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Sanjeev-Khudanpur.jpg","datePublished":"2008-01-16T22:40:13+00:00","dateModified":"2014-12-16T22:40:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/#\/schema\/person\/0244393be370fbc3ead8ec26062e9742"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2008\/01\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2008\/01\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2008\/01\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Sanjeev-Khudanpur.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Sanjeev-Khudanpur.jpg","width":117,"height":155,"caption":"Sanjeev Khudanpur"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2008\/01\/barraged-information-will-happen-much\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"We\u2019re barraged by information\u2014what will happen when it\u2019s too much?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/#website","url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/","name":"JHU Engineering Magazine","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/#\/schema\/person\/0244393be370fbc3ead8ec26062e9742","name":"Abby Lattes","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c56cb7af5427f847aa288542444ba9ff3d2107bf85dc6c6d44a4d1315608258d?s=96&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c56cb7af5427f847aa288542444ba9ff3d2107bf85dc6c6d44a4d1315608258d?s=96&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c56cb7af5427f847aa288542444ba9ff3d2107bf85dc6c6d44a4d1315608258d?s=96&r=g","caption":"Abby Lattes"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1654"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2913,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1654\/revisions\/2913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}