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Have Your Family Gather 'Round the Virtual Table

Posted by michael on from the pass-the-salt dept.

Ridgelift writes "A new device is helping families and loved ones feel connected even when they're far apart. Part of the Media Lab's Habitat project, a pair of 'cyber-tables' are equipped with radio tag readers, projectors and computers running on Linux and Macintosh operating systems. 'Habitat's designers say the system can give people a sense of what their loved ones are up to and perhaps even how they are feeling'."

12 of 68 comments (clear)

  1. Woo, RFID tags by iridiumz0r · · Score: 5, Funny

    I sure hope they don't put one of these things in my girlfriend.. I'd hate to have to explain to my grandparents at the next family meeting...

    1. Re:Woo, RFID tags by satanami69 · · Score: 4, Funny

      I sure hope they don't put one of these things in my girlfriend

      Why, cause she'd pop?

      --
      I really hate Dan Patrick.
    2. Re:Woo, RFID tags by twoslice · · Score: 4, Funny
      I sure hope they don't put one of these things in my girlfriend.

      I hate to break the news to you dude - but vinyl blow-up girlfriends always had RFID tags installed by stores to prevent shoplifting geeks who were too embarrased to buy one....

      --

      From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
  2. Privacy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    It is touted as a family enabler, but I suspect it will turn into a procavy reducing device much like baby monitors, stop light cameras, or Microsoft Windows Media Player.

    "Media Player", ha! More like "Media Deleter and Computer Crasher", am i rite?

  3. joek joek by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    hands off the table, kid!

    i'm in australia dad, HAHA.

  4. So, in other words the traditional holiday fights by RLiegh · · Score: 5, Funny

    could become flame-wars instead. I KNEW that all that time I wasted on usenet and irc would eventually pay off!

  5. Another option: call every morning at 6am by SnappingTurtle · · Score: 3, Funny

    Worked for my mom... for a few days. Then suddenly I started attending, um, study hall every morning at that time.

    --
    I've found that my posts don't format quite right w/o a sig.
  6. re. remote intimacy by Carl_LaFong · · Score: 2, Funny

    Researchers [at MIT Media Lab Europe] have developed a way to help people who are far away from their loved ones feel a little closer

    Hmm, gives a whole new meaning to the Media Lab's "Put That There."

    --
    Caution: Do not look into laser beam with remaining eye.
  7. for crying out loud by Geno+Z+Heinlein · · Score: 4, Funny
    A new device is helping families and loved ones feel connected even when they're far apart.
    • If a VT-50 was good enough for me and good enough for my father, then it's good enough for you!
    • My relatives live 10 timezones away and now my circadian rhythm is all messed up!
    • Dammit, the whole point of technology is to avoid human contact! Especially with my biologicals!!!
    (I was going to make a Surak joke, but flashed on Johnny Carson trying to tell jokes about Lincoln.)
    --
    Five percent of one year's DoD budget puts us on Mars.
  8. Genius! by iamdrscience · · Score: 4, Funny

    Virtual Round Table + Billy the singing Big Mouth Bass video conferencing = Family fun and memories you can cherish for years to come!

  9. I know what my Mom would say... by MyNameIsFred · · Score: 4, Funny

    How long are you going to leave that coffee cup on the table? Don't you ever wash your dishes.

  10. Aha by mcc · · Score: 3, Funny

    So THAT'S how the clock in the Weasley family's house worked.

    Always wondered about that.

    --
    Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts