Final Step - AI is the story of Rick Baker's 1991 invention and the long journey toward computers that can communicate with people through personalized audio-visual interaction.
The book explores how an early idea involving motion capture, telecommunications, computer databases, and personalized instructional presentations eventually connected with the modern emergence of artificial intelligence and interactive computer systems.
At its core, the concept was simple:
An expert usually talks to us personally and shows us things.
Final Step - AI explores how a computer system could one day replicate that type of personalized interaction automatically.
The original invention concept involved capturing a person's movement, transmitting that information to a computer database, comparing it against stored expert movement, and automatically generating a personalized visual and audio presentation for the user.
At the time, the technology required to fully implement the system barely existed. Motion tracking, telecommunications speeds, computer graphics, and processing power were all still developing.
The book explains how these limitations eventually gave way to modern AI-assisted systems and interactive technologies.
Final Step - AI is also a personal story involving invention, patents, commercialization attempts, technical barriers, litigation, and the challenge of protecting an idea that appeared years before the technology world fully caught up.
The book follows Rick Baker's efforts across multiple decades and countries as developments in computing, motion sensing, AI, and multimedia systems progressively moved closer to the original vision.
The book concludes with the idea that artificial intelligence, real-time feedback systems, sensors, adaptive learning, and multimedia technologies are moving computers toward becoming highly interactive companions capable of providing personalized guidance and instruction.
Final Step - AI explores what may be the next major step in human-computer communication.