Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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'."

8 of 68 comments (clear)

  1. Why? by henrygb · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It all seems a little complex. Why not broadband video over IP (with on/off switches at both ends)?

    1. Re:Why? by Ridgelift · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It all seems a little complex. Why not broadband video over IP (with on/off switches at both ends)?

      The idea is you use it one a regular basis without really thinking of it. It's like coming home and seeing someone elses shoes thrown across the kitchen, which tells you "hey, my brother's home. Why'd he throw his shoes like that? Maybe he's upset about something".

      Eating, reading, having a set of keys sit on a table when you're supposed to be at work. We recognise all these non-verbal queues without really thinking about them. Most technologies like telephones, email and video require a deliberate attempt to connect. Technologies like this one help you "feel" the other person's presence and activities.

      --
      Ruby on Rails Screencast
    2. Re:Why? by hurtstotouchfire · · Score: 2, Interesting
      I think this thing is not only ridiculously cool, but very artistic. I read too much sci-fi, especially Gibson, so I'm all about having ridiculously complicated technology all around me that is all very subtle in the actual affect it has on my life.

      It's like the little computer-companion in Mona Lisa Overdrive, or the amplified sensory perception chips from Neuromancer.

      I'd love to be soaked in so much tech that communication by technological means becomes second nature, or to have my brain jacked to the net (c'mon I know you all get off on that idea) like in Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, and have all my perceptions of people be that much more textured.

      I think this thing is ridiculously exciting and I want one now.

      Granted it would take some effort to not perform the obvious lewd possibilities afforded by a flat surface transmitting the images set on it.

    3. Re:Why? by Avihson · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You need to visit the real world a bit more, and spend less time online.

      Have you ever experienced the solitude of camping in the great forests alone? Have you ever spent more than 8 hours free from civilization's grasp?

      Your brain jacked into the net? With the current state of the net, you would spend all of your time ignoring Spam, blocking script kiddies "hacks" and modding down jerks from Slashdot trolling the FP, Yoda and goatse.cx posts. When will your overloaded braincells have time to experience Gibson's fantasies? How would you guard your innermost dreams from the omnipresent government and NGO watchdogs?

      Thanks, but no thanks. I'll stick to my simulated first person virtual world called "real life."

      Simstim can never replace reality, I can hike a glacier in Alaska, sleep on a beach in Belize, shop the East gate Market in Seoul, or just drive in the first-snow traffic jam anywhere in North America, and I know that the experiences are unique to me.

      Nothing can simulate the random chaos of nature, since everything is but a creation of nature.

  2. Similar to Neil Gaiman's Sandman series... by PseudoThink · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This reminds me of how each of the Endless kept real-time representations of their siblings in their domains. For example, Destiny's statues, or Dream's stained glass windows, each depicting the seven Endless in their current emotional/physical states. Not a bad idea...

  3. Who needs this when we have Big Mouth Billy Bass? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    I see a bunch of Big Mouth Billy Basses gathered round the table, showing who's available and who's not. Dress them up like Fish Heads by Barnes and Barnes, and that's what I'd call a family gathering!

  4. Big potential for the future by ajensen · · Score: 4, Interesting
    As a soon-to-be graduate student, I am faced with an inevitable move to somewhere far away from my family. One of the things that I worry about most is my family's dependence on computers: my dad utilizes several machines with varying platforms in order to make his business run; the rest of my family members use computers extensively to communicate with the rest of our family and keep up on the news.

    When I move away, they will be losing their support staff. I'm definitely a geek and will be the first to admit that it's fun maintaining all these computers... but at the same time, someone needs to be here to keep things running. Thankfully, many of our machines run Linux or FreeBSD and will be easy to maintain remotely. The Windows machines, on the other hand, could be a problem.

    All that aside, though, I'm glad to see that someone is developing a technology that allows people to feel connected in a more intimate sense than just throwing e-mail bits back and forth. Maybe by the time I've moved to my next school, I will be able to use a technology like this to keep the computers running and avoid homesickness.

    Who knows, I guess it could become my research topic...

    --a

  5. Image differencing and extraction by G4from128k · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A better solution might be to use a high-res digital camera that takes snapshots of the actual kitchen table, extracts changes in the scene, and transmits that.

    This would be superior to the RFID appoach because it allows the inclusion of ordinary and arbitrary objects. If you receive a greeting card from a loved-one, you place it on the table to show that you appreciated it. In contrast, the RFID approach requires someone to both tag any new object and create a simulacra of it for display on the other end. Rather than people creating a symbolic language from the default icons in the system (e.g., the default coffee cup, cigarette pack, etc.), the high-res image fragments could include very personal items such as the actual greeting card, a favorite coffee cup, or a meaningful momento.

    Image differencing and extraction would reduce the bandwidth requirements to below that required for videoconferencing. Even if a high-res (5 megapixel) imager is used, the image extraction algorithms would work to only transmit image fragments of objects that changed but stayed in place for some time. Thus, it might transmit a single snapshot of your bowl of cereal in the morning, but not any images from when you quickly opened and closed the kitchen cabinets.

    --
    Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.