At a TED conference last month, Patty Maes from MIT Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces Group unveiled a prototype information device which has the capability of significantly altering the way we interact with our environment. The device, the components of which cost $350, includes a camera, a portable battery-powered projector, and a mirror, communicates with a mobile phone to enable transfer of data to an from computers and the Internet.
The user wears coloured caps on thumbs and forefingers, and movement of these detected by the camera is interpreted as control signals. The user can simply walk up to any surface such as a wall and use finger gestures to interact with data such as a map projected on the wall by the device. If no surface is available, you can project onto your hand. When shopping, image recognition or marker technology is used to identify products which the shopper picks up, and the projector then projects information about the product onto the product, assisting the shopper in making a purchase choice.
When reading a physical newspaper, the device enables the user to see videos and updates relating to the content. More controversially, on meeting another person, the projector can be made to display information about the other person on the other person’s body. On your way to the airport, the projector can display on your boarding pass information about flight delays or boarding gates. If this device becomes commercialised, we will be in for an interesting future.