Jon Jackson can't figure out why Ted Selker isn't in his office. It's not as if Ted is prone to half days or long, boozy lunches. So again, for the benefit of the computer, Jackson steps on the sensor mat in front of the free-standing door and goes through it. This should identify him as Selker, because that's the way it has been programmed. It doesn't. Jackson gives it a last try, the machine starts to behave, and the sensor on the mat meets the connector. Finally, the screen indicates that Selker's in. The demonstration has finally worked.
At the MediaLabEurope symposium, student Jackson is showing the operation of Threshold, a device which uses sensors and voice recognition technology to act as a digital secretary, alerting the occupant to the arrival of new visitors, scheduling appointments and taking messages. In the MIT-envisioned future, only the technologically proficient will be able to avoid the unwanted caller.
This is just one of the scenarios imagined by the research strand Context Aware Computing, whose mission is to reduce the gap between computers and people by giving the computer information about individuals. The 27-strong team is headed by the real Ted Selker, whose most popular idea so far has been Track Point, the little green mouse that nestles between the G, H and B keys on many laptops.
Ted and his group have also created a talking couch, designed to recite the advance schedule of the person foolish enough to sit on it, and the equally chatty bed, which will tell you to correct your horizontal posture, or advise you when it's past your bedtime.
Less irritating is the talking trivet, an oven glove with temperature sensors which will inform users when food items are too cold, too hot, or on fire (although presumably users might have figured out the latter all by themselves).
MIT MediaLab students and their magnificent machines were in Dublin last week to open MediaLabEurope and demonstrate their talent at a symposium chaired by MIT director Nicholas Negroponte. Negroponte explained that Ireland, a country "with a great respect for madness", was a perfect location for the European arm of MIT's famed MediaLab. His aspiration is to replicate here the "seamless, antiestablishment, chaotic, difference" that has distinguished the institute in the US and around the world.
The only madness in evidence in the demonstration hall at Dublin Castle was in a cacophony of discordant stringed instruments, birdsong, buzzers and synthesised voices. In contrast, the students were clean-cut, articulate and almost evangelical in talking about their work. Their amazing, sometimes frivolous inventions are the result of months and years of research and experimentation, facilitated by the well-funded Media Lab. A member of the Lifelong Kindergarten group of researchers, Rick Borovoy is showing off his "dance-crazed buggies", a pair of toy cars which not only dance with each other, but can also teach each other new dances. Kids can teach their car new dances and interact with dance buggy owners all over the world, via a special mapping program. Fun, yes, but where's the educational value? Borovoy says the project "will allow kids to visualise the social networks they operate in. They can then reflect on them."
Gil Weinberg's music shaper ball is much more fun. Described as a "single person hyper-instrument", it's a soft ball of metallic fabric which can be pressed, pulled and squeezed to re-create instrumental sounds and adjust their volume and timbre.
This is part of Tod Machover's Opera of the Future project, which has also spawned the Brain Opera, "the largest-scale interactive music experience ever designed", which has now established a permanent residence in Vienna. By-products of the Brain Opera include: the Future Music Blender, an area where visitors can choose and blend their favourite synthesised sounds; and the sensor chair, which allows users to control music simply by moving their hands.
Over at the Counter Intelligence unit, students busy themselves in the kitchen as they address the question of how to make the heart of the home more intelligent. Jofish Kaye and Paul Thordarson are refining their project, Robocrop, using hydrophonic technology to make gardening accessible to all. Development is currently at the stage where plants will jump up and down in their pots when they need more water, feed or light. Sensibly, the boys say that it's really too bizarre to watch plants hopping around, so they're trying to find another alert system.
Looking at the exhibits, one is forced to consider the expense involved in providing the time and scope of imagination required for students to engage in this type of education. Consider the cost alone of bringing over 100 students, faculty members and research staff from the US to demonstrate their wares for the symposium.
Financially, MediaLabEurope is off to a good start, with £28 million in addition to the Guinness Hopstore premises from the Government, and lots of corporate interest, including an injection of £4.2 million from Eircell. Since MIT policy dictates that sponsors cannot direct specific research, students in Dublin will also be allowed to let their imaginations run riot in developing concepts of the future.