Consumers will be able to fix their automobiles while the car gives step-by-step advice, attack their ailments by making computer models of various treatments to find the best one and duck into virtual fitting rooms to try on a store’s clothes without leaving home.

All that and much more will be possible - in some cases within a few years - because of a major shift in computer-chip design, according to Intelscientists and others. And as the technology evolves, these experts believe, the relationship people have with their computers and other devices will undergo a remarkable transformation.

“The machines we build will be capable of understanding the world around us much as we do as humans,” said Justin Rattner, chief technology officer at Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker Intel Corp. “They will see and they will hear and they will probably speak and do a number of other things that resemble humanlike capabilities.”

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