Another amazing TED lecture on a demo project by Pattie Maes’ lab at MIT, spearheaded by Pranav Mistry, that attempts to seamlessly integrate meta-information from sources like the Internet with real life.
The device presented is essentially a mini-projecter that the user wears along with a camera, mirror and phone. Everything connects to the cellphone, which computes and communicates all of the information. Amazingly, the entire system only runs about $350.
Using the index fingers and thumbs, the user can interact with information on real life surfaces.
Some of the things it lets you do:
- Take photos by forming a frame with your fingers
- Interact with information based on gestures
- Draw and project on anything (Ex: using a calculator on your hand)
- Pull up information on various items, products, books, etc. as you see/use them.
One example they showed was reading the printed newspaper — focus on an article, and you can pull up a video on the newspaper surface and watch it. (By this time in watching the demo, I’m geeking out so much I’m about to hyperventilate.)
And even information on people. Not sure who’s talking to you? Well, it can generate a word cloud of tags associated with that person:
The point is to have access to all of the information on the internet everywhere and to integrate that information seamlessly with the world around you using natural gestures.
Watch the video. It’s about 9 minutes long. You won’t regret it.
The device presented is essentially a mini-projecter that the user wears along with a camera, mirror and phone. Everything connects to the cellphone, which computes and communicates all of the information. Amazingly, the entire system only runs about $350.
Using the index fingers and thumbs, the user can interact with information on real life surfaces.
Some of the things it lets you do:- Take photos by forming a frame with your fingers
- Interact with information based on gestures
- Draw and project on anything (Ex: using a calculator on your hand)
- Pull up information on various items, products, books, etc. as you see/use them.
One example they showed was reading the printed newspaper — focus on an article, and you can pull up a video on the newspaper surface and watch it. (By this time in watching the demo, I’m geeking out so much I’m about to hyperventilate.)
And even information on people. Not sure who’s talking to you? Well, it can generate a word cloud of tags associated with that person:
The point is to have access to all of the information on the internet everywhere and to integrate that information seamlessly with the world around you using natural gestures.
Watch the video. It’s about 9 minutes long. You won’t regret it.