Posted by harrisj
Fri, 15 Apr 2005 21:42:05 GMT
It seems like only yesterday I was mocking the SNIF technology for tracking dog social networks (ie, for selling a new expensive electronic device to dog owners with too much disposable income). But reading that, you might've been thinking, what if I own a chicken as a pet? What device can help me? Well, fret no more, because the Mixed Reality lab in Singapore has a solution for you (I hope this is a hoax, but it seems not): Poultry Internet! This system consists of a remote monitoring device with tactile sensors that allows the user to track a chicken's movements at home from the office and freak out remotely pet the chicken by petting the robot proxy. Be sure also to check out the video to see the system in action, hear the cool background music, and come away inspired by the mission statement:
Poultry Internet provides a new cybernetic direction and experience for both we humans and our poultry friends.
It's a beautiful world.
Posted in Hardware, Pointless | no comments
Posted by harrisj
Wed, 13 Apr 2005 19:58:00 GMT
In my previous post where I criticized the
SNIF device for mapping pet social networks as being a solution in search of a problem, I wrote a snide aside about it originating from the MIT Media Lab (where else?). Okay, I will admit it, that was mean. The
MIT Media Lab does come up with some great ideas too. For instance, check out this design for
a remote control that is powered by pushing the buttons (via the wonderful
Make Magazine Blog. This is so simple but brilliant (think how many batteries just go into remote controls every year), that I feel I owe the Media Lab a bit of an apology on the strength of that one invention alone. And they do lots of other neat stuff too. I even took a few classes in holography there while I was a student at MIT.
Still, I feel I must explore the source of my snarkiness. The nature of the Media Lab is that their projects are driven by corporate funding, and so there is often a sheen of hype over everything they do (no sponsor wants to feel like they're paying for a dud). They really have to sell themselves to the sponsors. So, the resulting perception among engineers is this sense of undifferentiated breathlessness where the most speculative and profoundly silly projects are treated with the same reverences as ideas profound and smart. Furthermore, the hype practically screams out the belief that everything will be a wild success and that everything can be improved by technology. It's like we've learned no lessons from the dot-com bust. And this hype is what gets me surly, because I've been down that road before.
Posted in Hardware | Tags medialab, mit | no comments
