"Smart gadgets may anticipate our needs? Within a decade or two, researchers at Silicon Valley companies and elsewhere predict, consumer gadgets will be functioning like hyper-attentive butlers, anticipating and fulfilling people’s needs without having to be told. Life would not only be more convenient, it might even last longer: Devices could monitor people’s health and step in when needed to help them get better. The technology propelling this new generation of personal assistants is a combination of sophisticated sensors and carefully tailored computer software. As envisioned, the machines would adjust their own actions to the preferences and needs of an individual, by analyzing data on the person’s past actions and monitoring current behavior with cameras, audio recorders and other sensors."