The Perceptual Computer: the Past, Up to the Present, and Into the Future

Abstract

This article is an overview of the perceptual computer (Per-C) and summarizes developments about it for three time frames: the past (prior to 2010), up to the present (2010–2016), and into the future (2017–). It explains what the Per-C is and locates it in the Venn diagram of computing with words (CWW) in both its Intermediate CWW and Advanced CWW sectors. For the first two time frames, the article focuses on what has been done for the three component blocks of the Per-C, namely its encoder, CWW engine, and decoder. For the third time frame it focuses on what needs to be done for those three component blocks. It also gives brief summaries of published applications for the Per-C for the first two time frames. Readers who are interested in potential research topics will be most interested in the time frame (2017–).