Have Your Family Gather 'Round the Virtual Table

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'."

Comments

Woo, RFID tags

[iridiumz0r]

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...

Re:Woo, RFID tags

[satanami69]

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

Why, cause she'd pop?

Re:Woo, RFID tags

[twoslice]

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....

Why?

[henrygb]

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

Re:Why?

[Ridgelift]

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.

Re:Why?

[hurtstotouchfire]

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.

Re:Why?

[Avihson]

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.

Re:Why?

[Saeger]

So, because you're a pessimistic, paranoid, isolationist, luddite, so should everyone be? Only you know the Right Way?

Humankinds appetite for communication and connectedness will continue to grow, and despite my "Brain-2-Network" interface, I'll still be able to stop and smell the flowers.

Simstim can never replace reality

Never say never, or did you mean to say "I hope it's never possible, because it conflicts with my current belief systems"?

--

Re:Why?

[Mr. Slippery]

So, because you're a pessimistic, paranoid, isolationist, luddite, so should everyone be?

So, suggesting that real life is more interesting than simulations is pessimistic, paranoid, isolationist, and luddite? Sounds paranoid to me. And you don't want to go out into the world to experience it, but rather stay at home jacked in? Definitely isolationist.

Humankinds appetite for communication and connectedness will continue to grow

Yes, becauce current technological and socieconomic trends are taking away opportunites for communication and connectedness. Spend two hours each way communting to work, nine hours in a cube, get home too exhausted for any interaction more demanding than swallowing your ration of anitdepressants and passive TV watching...and wonder why you have this itching unfulfilled desire for that "ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night". And the commericals dangle shiny techno-toys in front of you, and you think "ah! that must be what's missing from my life."

Never say never

Of course one can say never. "The halting problem will never be solved." Likewise, "Simulated reality can never match the real thing - because the best computer is the Universe."

So, in other words the traditional holiday fights

[RLiegh]

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

Similar to Neil Gaiman's Sandman series...

[PseudoThink]

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...

Another option: call every morning at 6am

[SnappingTurtle]

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

re. remote intimacy

[Carl_LaFong]

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."

Who funds this research?

[HangingChad]

Because I have an idea for an virtual crapper that will cause log grahics to appear in the receive toilet. When I have to stop and think what message I'm sending tossing my keys on the table, that's where I draw the virtual line. If you want to see how someone far away is doing, here's a suggestion: Road trip!

Re:Who funds this research?

[Ridgelift]

When I have to stop and think what message I'm sending tossing my keys on the table, that's where I draw the virtual line.

95% of all communication is non-verbal. Technologies like these are an attempt to come up with ways to communicate non-verbal communication. Of course nothing beats visiting in person, but perhaps the technologies that follow these ones will help people who are in isolation cope better, such as Antarctic stations or perhaps deep space exploration.

for crying out loud

[Geno Z Heinlein]

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.)

Big potential for the future

[ajensen]

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

Re:Big potential for the future

[iggymanz]

Windows remote admin - VNC, baby

Genius!

[iamdrscience]

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

compare to plane tickets

[diamond0]

Seems like a plane ticket would be cheaper, given the number of times certain relatives would be willing to use this thing

I know what my Mom would say...

[MyNameIsFred]

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

Re:I know what my Mom would say...

[BollocksToThis]

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

But of course she'd put a question mark on the end, because otherwise that's really shocking Mom advice.

Image differencing and extraction

[G4from128k]

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.

Aha

[mcc]

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

Always wondered about that.