Preprints & Reprints
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This selection of draft pre-prints has been supplied to a range of publishers, the press, radio and TV. Most have been published in magazines, newspapers, professional journals and conferenc proceedings. All the texts are presented in html format complete with a summary and reference for your ease of access and use.
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    2004
  1. Receiver
    Vodafone Group June
  2. Discounting Technology
    Saab Magazine, (pp41-43) 04 February/March
  3. The Office of the Future
    Océ Dialogue, Issue 1/2004, Page 8/9
    2003
  1. From R&d to r&D
    European Business Forum, Issue 16 (pp19-21)Winter 2003/4,
  2. Tech in 2004 - Opinion
    Bt.com/talking business, Nov/Dec p9,
  3. Telecoms On The Cusp
    ITU Telecom World 2003 Daily Newspaper, Sunday 12 October 2003, Page 44
    2002
  1. NotGettingIT.com
    British Telecom Engineering Journal, (Vol 3 Part 1, pp88), January - March
  2. Wearables, Whereables, Wereables
    LOOP - Diamond Link Mag Japan, February
  3. New World Net Scenarios
    World Network Scenarious (pp37 - 40), Ultimate Telecom Futures, Horizon House UK, January
  4. Who goes there?
    Journal of Communication Network, Vol 1/2 To be published
  5. AI + AL
  6. The Cyborgs Are Coming
    2001
  1. Doing IT!
    British Telecom Engineering Journal (Vol 1, Pt 4, p67), October - December
  2. Life Begins @ 100Mbit/s
    Billing Magazine, 17 October
  3. 3G To Be Sidelined??
    The Sentaku, Japan, April
  4. The Death Of Corporate R&D
    Infoconomist Magazine, www.infoconomy.com, March
  5. Freedom In An Unreal World
    Insight Magazine (p4), February
  6. Napster - Just The Beginning
    British Telecom Engineering Journal, January
    2000
  1. On The Move
    The Sunday Post, London, 24 December
  2. Hal 9000
    The Industry Standard, End of Year Prediction, 14 December
  3. A Lawless Web?
    International Telecommunications Quarterly, December
  4. Professor Peter Cochrane
    Head to Head, Sovereign Magazine (pp 56 - 57), Spring
  5. Freedom In An Unreal World
    No Reference, March
  6. Cows Horns To Implants
    One in Seven Magazine, RNID, Vol 15 (pp14 - 15), Feb/March
  7. New Technology, Horizons & Attitudes
    Weekly Diamond, Japan, 22 March 00
  8. Transformations
    1999
  1. PC or TV?
    Evening Post London, 24 December 1999
  2. A Future Of Man Woman & Machine
    Yukom Medien, December 1999
  3. The Global Grid Of Chaos
    Anne Leer (Editor ) The Global Grid of Chaos, Section 3, p73, Masters of the Maters of The Wired World, FT/Pitman, 1999
  4. If Networks Don't Live, They Will Die
    Weekly Diamond, Japan, October 1999
  5. Gartner Wentworth Report
    No reference, September 1999
  6. A Glimpse Of The Future
    Networked Economy, Parliamentary Information Technology Committee Jnl, Vol 18/1 (p227), Autumn 1999
  7. Carbon-Silicon Convergence
    Forbes Magazine, August 1999
  8. The Humanoid Condition
    Context Magazine (p74-75), July/August 1999
  9. What Is The Future Of Man, Woman And Machine?
    (Highlights of the 2dd KPMG Cantor Lecture) RSA Journal, 1999
  10. Hubble Bubble & Panic
    Science & Public Affairs Journal (p5), June 1999
  11. Vacuum Tube Paved SuperHighway
    USA Today, 26 June 1999
  12. Life On-Line
    No reference, 1999
    1998
  1. Optical Wireless
    IEE COMSOC Mag, Vol 36/12 (pp 72 ­ 82), December 1998
  2. IT On Wheels
    No Reference, 1998
  3. Back to The Future
    Highlights of the 1998 3M Innovation Lecture, delivered by Professor Cochrane at Brunel University
  4. Looking beyond the horizon
    On Demand (Internal BT publication) Issue 13 (pp20 - 21), January 1998
    "Imagine a world where artificial intelligence systems are part of everyday life, where software evolves itself and where communications networks operate free of maintanance. A few years ago, such concepts were in the realms of fantasy: today they are genuine examples of tomorrow's - and the day afters - technology."
  5. A toy no longer
    British Telecom Engineering Journal, Vol 16/4 (p344), January 1998
  6. Exponential Education
    Using Education Effectively, A guide to technology in the social sciences, Chapter 1 (p3), UCL Press, Editor Millsom Henry, 1998 We are living at a time of unprecedented change with technology advancing faster, and producing more new opportunities than ever before. Information Technology (IT) has not only created the mechanisms to do more with less, but also the means of storing, accessing and transporting information on a scale inconceivable just 10 years ago.
  7. Biology, Computers, Sex & Sorting
    IT, Plant Pathology & Biodiversity, Bridge P, Jeffries P, Morse D R, Scott PR (Editors), Chapter 40 (pp451 - 463), CAB International, 1998
    1997
  1. The Evolution Of Mankind
    No Reference, 1997
  2. The Desert & The Oasis
    British Telecom Engineering Journal, Vol 16/2 (pp168-169), July 1997
  3. A vision of mobility
    Personal Technologies, Springer-Verlag, Vol 1 (pp6-10), April 1997
    "Perhaps we are catching up with the future, and may even overtake it, with wearable devices of even greater capability than those of Star Trek on the horizon."
  4. New interfaces and chaos to come
    Financial Times, IT [New Year Review - The Shape Of Things To Come] (p7), 9 January 1997
  5. Beam me up, I really want to be mobile
    Electronic Design Magazine (pp88 - 90), January 1997
    "Probably the most revolutionary move will be towards the wearing of technology."
  6. Telemedicine & Telecare
    Freedom In An Unreal World, 1997
  7. From Copper to Glass
    The Right Idea At The Right Time, The Computer Journal, OUP, Vol 40/1 (p1-11), 1997
    1996
  1. Worlds Heaviest Aeroplane
    EXE Software Developers Mag, V11/7 December 1996, pp16-22.
    "As the machines beget ever more powerful machines, the exponential expansion in software size and complexity continues to overtake and swamp them."
  2. Don't silicomorphise me! (Invited keynote paper)
    Human Computer Interaction Conference (HCI 1996), Imperial College, London, 20 - 23 (pp1-6), August 1996
    "Even before the start of the electronics revolution in 1915 we have been bending people into technology. Well, it really is time to start bending technology into people - it is supposed to help and not hinder us."
  3. Virtual mathematics
    The Mathematical Gazette, Vol 80, No 488 (pp267 - 278), July 1996
    "Mathematics is often defined as the science of space and number ... It was not until the recent resonance of computers and mathematics that a more apt definition became fully evident: mathematics is the science of patterns."
  4. Computers and the Aged
    Speculations in Science and Technology, Chapman Hall, Vol 19/2, June 1996.
    "In this paper, we address the technologies which offer substitutes for travel, thus helping the old and the infirm. We also look at the larger potential social consequences of information technology progress. Though these changes will affect everyone, they will be particularly significant for elderly people who may find it harder to adjust."
  5. I see and I remember
    International Conference on VR, 3D & Multi-Media over Networks, The National Museum of Photography & The Moving Image, Bradford UK, 16 April 96
    "Following the information age and visualisation comes the experience age and full sensory immersion."
  6. 21st Century Company at Work
    CBI Corporate Communications Handbook, Chapter 6, Editors; Foster & Jolly, Kogan Page, London, 1996
    "To be successful in the next century, companies will have to drastically alter their structure and mode of operation."
    1995
  1. Just in time education & training
    Project Magazine, Vol 8/6 (pp3-8), November 1995
    "IT in the future - innovate and educate"
  2. Who Cares ?
    Awarded IBTE Best Paper Prize 1996
    British Telecom Engineering Journal, vol 14/3 (pp225 - 232), October 1995
  3. Schooling is Obsolete - Learning Isn't
    Wired Magazine, 1.06 (pp40-41), October 1995 "Our purpose in compiling this list was to create a concise and, hopefully, visionary document that condenses a wide range of views from a large number of organisations."
  4. It would be good to talk!
    DTI 2nd Language Convention, QE II Conference Centre, London, 16-18 October 1995
    "Whilst conversational interfaces are some way off, the integration of speech recognition, natural language processing, speech synthesis and search engines will allow the creation of new paradigms. In this contribution we discuss some of the issues relating to human interaction with machines from the standpoint of user needs."
  5. From information to experience
    IT - A Glimpse of The Future, ASLIB (The Association for Information Management) Proceedings, Vol 47/10, October 95, pp221-228.
    "Our challenge is to adopt new technologies at an ever faster rate. The advantage that we now enjoy is an ability to bend the technology into the human being, as opposed to bending the human beings into the technology. "
  6. A three click, one second world
    IEE Electronics & Communication Eng Journal , Vol 7/4 (pp 138 - 139), August 1995
    "The generic problem is having to wait for a period that is too short to do anything else, but long enough to break our concentration. Delays of a fraction of a second can disrupt our mental agility and interactive creativity to an alarming degree. "
  7. The potential of multimedia
    Journal of the Parliamentary IT Committee, Vol 13, No 3 (pp 6 - 10), Summer 1995
    "Given these trends, it is clear that current network technologies will ultimately introduce significant bottlenecks and limits too interactive working. Telecommunications networks therefore have to respond to the demands of the peripheral terminals or they will fundamentally constrain progress in the first part of the next millennium. "
  8. Desperate race to keep up with children
    The Times Educational Supplement (p25), 23 June 1995
    "Each successive generation sees a widening of the gap between parent and child in terms of life's experience, educational opportunity and basic skills engendered by technological and social change. Today the accelerating technological change sees a gap that is wider then ever before."
  9. A better class of communication
    Wired Magazine, 1.03 (p114), June 1995
    "During my early career, I worked in a government institution organised and run on classic civil-service lines: rigid, over formalised and bureaucratic."
  10. Networks - the delay in removing delay
    Internet '95, Wembley, (pp53-54), 16-18 May 1995
    "Who would like a three click, one second, no handbook world? Drill down to anything you want in three clicks of a mouse, and it appears on your screen in under a second! No need to read a handbook, no training - just the application of intuition - an obvious and easy to use interface for everyone. The only prospect of realising this dream relies on 'end-to-end' optical fibre and significant improvements in network and computer protocols, interfaces and software."
  11. Banking galore
    Electronics for Everyone Means Banking Galore, SIBOS 1995 Conference
    "Banking it is becoming destabilised by a diverse range of organisations including, building societies, insurance companies, car manufacturers, telecommunication operating companies and other institutions offering a myriad of new banking and financial services."
  12. The information wave
    Chapter 2, 'Information Super-Highways', Multimedia Users & Futures, Academic Press, London 1995
  13. Optical fibre - the right idea at the right time
    British Telecom Engineering, Vol 14, Pt1 (pp33-37), April 1995
  14. Super highways - super computers & super societies
    "For society at large, super highways imply a change greater than the transition from the cart track to the motor way. Whilst we measure the capacity of copper and radio systems in hundreds or thousands of simultaneous speech circuits, for fibre we can think in millions."
  15. The technology of tomorrow
    "Much of our thinking and expectation in and IT is conditioned by a history of radio and copper cables of constrained bandwidths and high distance related costs; with centralised switching systems and services; software of massive complexity to realise simple functions; and technologically convenient interfaces. But we now have very low cost transmission and computing - and as a result we see in prospect: the migration of intelligence to the periphery of networks; total customer control of services; distributed switching; increased mobility; bandwidth on demand; radical changes in services and hold times. In the next decade we can expect to see all of the established wisdoms, practices and operating regimes overturned and replaced by new modes and concepts. New forms of software and operating regimes, humanised interfaces, reductions in computer illiteracy and greater mobility."
  16. The infinite city
    The Square Mile, Kean Publications Ltd, Winchester Group, ISBN 1872558836 (pp83-84), 1995
    "What might be the next step for the already metaphoric City? Well, just as the traditional trading floors have become museums, we may see the screen-based trading rooms suffer the same fate."
  17. Videoconferencing, telepresence & reality
    "The present development of videoconferencing and video telephony is conditioned by the technologies of the past where bandwidth and distance are expensive and television forms the basis of the display techniques. We challenge this view on the basis that the planet is now dominated by optical fibre transmission, which is very low cost and is rapidly getting cheaper. We further propose that bandwidth should be used (wasted ?) to simplify terminal equipments and provide new display and interactive environments. In our view we should now turn our attention to humanising the interfaces and add more realism by using more bandwidth rather than continuing on the accepted trajectory of higher levels of compression and coding. We present a view of the facilities that could result from the development of current and emerging technologies."
  18. So what is the information superhighway?
    IEE Colloquium on Information SuperHighway, London, 28 April 1995
    "Operating a modern economy without a super highway will be like running a country with cart tracks instead of motorways. It will still work - but only just!"
  19. Telepresence - visual telecommunications into the next century
    4th IEE Conference on Telecommunications, Manchester (pp175-180), April 93
    "In this paper we describe a selection of telepresence systems and services that are currently being investigated and developed. Each can be fully realised with present day technology, and most can operate, albeit at a reduced service level, over the existing network. It is not within the scope of this paper to present detailed descriptions of the practicalities of these services, nor the demands they will place on networks, but to draw attention to their potential and likely importance in future telecommunications."
  20. The virtual university
    Business of Education, Issue 5 (pp17-18), March 1995
    "It is important to recognise that the acceleration of society through technological change is creating a new paradigm that education has to respond to."
  21. Commercialising the superhighway
    Learned Information Society-Electronic Books Conference Wembley, London, March 1995
    "From all the hype, and public debate, it might be expected that someone somewhere had specified exactly what an information superhighway is. Not so! Confusion reigns and there are as many notions of what a superhighway is as people talking about them - but, nowhere is there a full definition. "
  22. 3-D imaging Systems for Video Communication Applications
    Proc.SPIE. Vol 2409. Stereoscopic Displays and VR Systems II, San Jose CA. 5-10 February 1995
    "In this paper we describe the background to, and our interest in, three dimensional (3-D) imaging systems for improved , video-telecommunications services."
  23. 200 Futures for 2020
    British Telecom Engineering, Vol 13, Pt 4 (pp312 -318), January 1995
    Awarded an IBTE Highly Commended Award 1995
  24. Biological limits to information processing in the human brain
    "The human brain is at, or near, the capability limits that a neuron-based system allows. This implies that our future evolutionary potential is limited and that, as a species, Homo Sapiens may be near the pinnacle of achievable intelligence using current cellular carbon technology."
  25. Three-dimensional remote imaging of surgery
    Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, Volume 1, 1995
    "We present our experience in developing a system for transmitting 3D imaging of surgery from an operating theatre to a distant location. The surgeon wears head mounted cameras which transmit the 3D image through ISDN lines to a distant location where the 3D image is reformed by the use of infra-red controlled special glasses. We tested the system in an experimental situation and then in the operating theatre. The system offers the potential for improved remote training and monitoring of surgery and will have significant implications for the future training and practice of surgery."
    1994
  1. Education and the Birth of the Experience Industry
    European Technology in Learning Conference, NEC Birmingham, 16-18 November 1994
  2. The hidden benefits of optical transparency
    IEEE ComSoc Magazine, Vol 32/9, pp 90 -97, September 1994
    "The optical fibre amplifier will bring about network transparency and reductions in manning levels, interface problems, software and operating costs, whilst improving reliability and performance."
  3. Communications, care and cure
    Telemed '94, Hammersmith Hospital, London, 1-4 September 1994
    "In this paper we present a migrational view of the technologies being developed for deployment and use around the turn of the millennium."
  4. Television, information & telepresence
    Nottingham Trent University, Alumni Focus, Vol 1/2, August 94.
    "For a true technological leap forward we have to go well beyond the current industry desire to sell us higher definition (even more lines) and a slightly bigger (and wider) screen. In order to enhance that sense of reality, that sense of involvement, a much larger window is required - one that takes over a larger percentage of our visual cortex."
  5. 21st Century information systems
    British Computer Society, Expert Systems '94 Conf, Cambridge, pp 3-17
    "In this paper we explore these new freedoms and give our personal views on the developments which might have an impact on our IT lives in the next decade."
  6. Education, technology and change - a personal view
    IEE Computing & Control Engineering Journal, Vol 5/2, pp 52-54, April 1994
    "A resurrected Archimedes would be staggered by the technological advancements made by the human race since his death. At the same time he would be amazed to find that little progress had been made in the teaching methods for science and engineering! He might well ask the obvious question; why are you not using all of this wonderful technology to help you teach and enlighten your students?"
  7. IT and the future
    Common Purpose Journal, pp 9 - 12, Spring 1994
    "Information Technology (IT)is the only sector delivering an exponential growth in capability whilst reducing raw material and energy costs."
  8. Copper mind-sets
    British Telecommunications Engineering, Vol 13, Pt 1, pp 10 -19, April 1994
    "Much of our technological thinking and expectation is conditioned by a history of established practices and trends. In telecommunications it is radio and copper cables with constrained bandwidths and high distance related costs; for software, the acceptance of massive complexity to realis relatively simple tasks; for the interface between man and machine it is technology convenient to the machine. In each case the solutions become steeped in political and corporate correctness through massive investment programmes that perpetuate the established trajectory. However, every few decades technological progress across a number of apparently disconnected areas presents an opportunity for radical change."
  9. The hidden benefits of optical transparency
    OFC94 San Jose, CA - Special Session on The Future of Fibre Optics, Feb 94
    "Wavelength routing using linear and non-linear modes offers the prospect of non-blocked switchless communication for up to 20 million customers."
  10. Telepresence, training, teaching & the ISDN
    Integrated Communications 94 - The ISDN User Show and Conference, Wembley Centre, February 94.
    "The case for teleworking, teleconferencing, entertainment and telegames over the ISDN are reasonably well established and clear cut. In this paper we therefore briefly examine the prospects for education and training at a distance with specific examples from the medical profession."
  11. Bits are free - the information future
    Design Magazine, January 94
    "Our ability to generate information and transport it about the planet on super highways of transparent optical fibre is about to change the way in which we communicate, work and live."
  12. Dark fibre will transform telecommunications
    IEEE Spectrum, Technology 94, January 1994
    "This is the year of the "dark fiber" - a transparent superhighway -"an information hosepipe" unimpeded by electronic amplifiers or switches, over which gigabits-per-second of data can be delivered."
    1993
  1. Engineering with virtual reality
    The VR User Show, Conference and Exhibition, London, December 1993
    "In this presentation, we examine the popular view of virtual reality and consider novel applications relating to the engineering of complex non-linear systems in the information world. Our basic hypothesis is that if we could see, touch and feel the objects generated by, and for, information systems and the new abstractions we have to deal with, then our understanding might increase to the point where satisfactory models could be produced."
  2. Visions of a perfect diagnosis
    The Times Higher Education Supplement, 19 November 1993, p8
    "Like other sectors of industry, commerce and education, medicine is under increasing pressure to become more efficient."
  3. Digits in the home, office & pocket
    Live 93 Exhibition Special, The Sunday Times, 12 September 93, p 3.
    "The digital revolution we have witnessed in computing and communication during the past 15 years has mainly impacted on the office and place of work, with only a moderate incursion into the home in the form of computer games. However, the next phase will involve integrated entertainment and information systems that will create a more uniform, and electronically mobile environment."
  4. Companies and communication in the next century
    CBTA Conference, Montreal, Canada, pp 141-146, September 1993
    "In this paper the technology drivers, interaction between companies and communications operators, and the resultant services. are discussed."
  5. Optical telecommunications - future prospects (Invited Paper)
    Optical Telecommunications - Future Prospects, IEE Electronics & Communication, August 93, Vol 5(4), pp221-232.
    Awarded the IERE Benefactors Prize 1994
    "Optical technology is already the dominant carrier of global information. It is also central to the realisation of future networks which have the capabilities demanded by society. For example, essentially unlimited bandwidth to convey services of any kind, full transparency that allows terminal-only upgrades in capacity, and flexible routing of channels, are some of the key features that cannot be provided by alternative technologies. In the main, all of the necessary elements for such networks already exist in experimental form, and rapid progress is being made towards a field deployment capability. This will bring about a paradigm change in the whole nature of telecommunications as we move into the third millennium."
  6. The office you wish you had
    BT Engineering Journal, Vol 12/2, July 93, pp 91 - 96.
    Awarded the IBTE Runner Up Paper Prize 1994
    "In many respects the office has changed little over the past 200 years. The introduction of the telephone, copier, fax and computer have only served to speed up and proliferate the basic processes. We are now faced with an increasingly complex and a difficult environment that requires fundamental changes to humanise the processes. In this paper we address some of the interface issues that now appear to have near term solutions."
  7. Failure type forecasting via burst errors
    5th Bangor Communications Symposium, UCNW Bangor, 2 June 1993.
    "A transmission system performance monitor based on forecasting probable cause of failure by error event analysis is described with results for a HDB3 line coding."
  8. Reliability aspects of optical fibre systems & networks (Invited paper)
    IEEE International Reliability Physics Symp, Atlanta, Georgia, March 1993
    "Optical fibre has replaced copper on point-to-point long distance lines on a one-for-one basis, with system and network designs scaled directly from our copper experience. However, fibre has introduced radical changes in almost every system parameter including repeater spacings, power feed requirements, EMC, human interdiction, multiplex equipment, corrosion induced failures, and so on. Established reliability models seldom reflect these radical improvements or afford sufficient importance to the novel and beneficial features of this new technology. We examine these aspects and present results and arguments derived from new models developed to specifically reflect the key aspects of systems and network technologies that will have most impact on our future network thinking and planning."
    1992
  1. Telemedicine & Telecare
    Human - Machine Interaction At A Distance, NEC Infovision Comforum Futures Conference, Orlando, Florida, November 1992
  2. Digits everywhere
    No reference, 1992
  3. A glimpse of the future
    Edited highlights of a presentation given at BT Laboratories, Martlesham Heath, to an audience of 600 engineers, scientists, managers and operational staff on 28 January 1992
    "This paper is going to take you on a journey into the future, it's my journey, it's my future. It's a view that has grown over a 30 year period and has recently crystallised through work over the past year aimed at mapping telecommunications and computing into the next millennium."
    1991
  1. Assessing the (Richter) Scale of Telephone Network Outages
    Computing and Communication The Next Decade, IEE 3rd Bangor Symposium on Communication (pp 50-56), UCNW, Bangor, North Wales, May 1991
  2. Video Conferencing, Telepresence & Reality
    No reference, 1991
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