Technology in Transition

Sometimes I have a sense of nostalgia for the simplicity of the world I grew up in: a world of tangible "stuff." In other ways, I cannot imagine life without the technology we use every day. Living has become a very different experience in the time from 1993 to 2013. Probably the only thing I really miss is feeling a responsibility to protect and maintain my tangible possessions because they were limited, rare, and precious to me-- these days everything seems to be quick, easy, and cheap and as a result easily replaced.

Today we're talking about the tech of yester-year- all of the gadgets and tools we had to navigate us in the land of web 1.0 and part of 2.0. You know what I mean- the floppie disks, VCR's, Blockbuster, and blowing on your NES cartridges so your game would stop messing up. Thanks to continual innovation we have come to live with far better technologies, but there was a time when we absolutely relied on those simple technologies and considered them luxuries! It makes me wonder if movie nights have lost their splendor for kids of today? Do they get the same thrill and excitement scrolling through Netflix or Amazon Instant Video that I once got walking in to the local movie rental place- Questor Movies To Go? When choices were limited, they were more intentional somehow more special. Movie nights were a treat! Nowadays, it's as easy to do as turn on your television. At what point does our ease of access make us take for granted all that we have? It does seem like our "more, more, more" culture has taken off with the dawning of the digital age and with all the consumption of goods ometimes I have to wonder if we're better off for it?

Then, I see the devices our engineers and computer geeks are uniting to create and I see the possibilities that they open up for society. I have to acknowledge that the benefits of our future technology are worth every device and every development along the way. From the now obsolete technologies of the distant past we have come into a world of technological invention that seems straight out of a science fiction novel.

Computer Science... bringing us the reality of theatrical imagination.

In Pattie Maes's presentation on TEDTalk from 2009 a world of integrated technology becomes realized. Adopting the concept of a sixth sense, MIT student, Pranav Mistry worked to develop a prototype of a device (incidentally) called the SixthSense. The device was created by integrating a web camera, battery powered projection device, mirror, and Pranav's own cell phone which would enable him (or the user) to interact using digital technology with the physical environment.

Granted, many of the device uses described in detail were social or personal in nature (taking photos, checking the time, checking plane schedules), but there are also further applications for working with paper and productivity tools at the end of this TEDTalk presentation by Pranav himself. Devices like this one- if the physical logistics of it can ever be figured out to make them more manageable to wear and interact with- could absolutely change the way that we interact with our entire physical environment. The possibilities are limitless as long as individuals with imagination continue to develop the technology. I hope that we will hear more about this technology as there hasn't been much said since 09/10.

The SixthSense from the website

SixthSense is likened to the interface seen in Minority Report

The technology from SixthSense also got me to thinking about a more current and ever-evolving technological reality that we are facing: Google Glass. Seen below, "Glass," as it is known, is a very real technology that will become a part of our future is under heavy scrutiny at the moment by a range of people from authorities in the national and local government down to the individual users of the device. The device is already banned in several areas and the poor developers haven't even set a release date for the device yet! Glass is a technology that I am personally very excited about because it removes a level of complication from the SixthSense design (in my opinion) by putting the projection on the glass you are looking through. In this way, Glass seems a little more private than SixthSense (which was outwardly projected the images) and it also involves a less cumbersome device.

Glass is likened to Iron Man's Jarvis interface

Glass is really catching a lot of flack from the public, and in our age of "If you have an opinion, share it!" blogs- like the one providing the above picture, create open forums for its many criticisms. There are also (thankfully) individuals out there willing to sing the praises of this new leap into intuitive technology and beg the public to think about the future and the positive outcomes. What seems to be overlooked in the opinions of those attacking the device is the fact that with or without Glass, your privacy is still an issue, cinema piracy will still happen, and people are still going to have auto accidents related to distracting devices. It's just going to happen. Glass isn't so far removed from mobile phones and I personally believe it would be safer [It doesn't impede you vision, it's hands free, it's voice controlled].

 It seems that every time there is some tech advance, all the doomsday prophecies come creeping out of the cracks and the hoards of skeptics grab their pitchforks and curse the demon technology, but come on guys, really-- consider the positive possibilities (there are so many!). These technologies are just the next logical step in our quest for connecting all the data of the world around us- as Tim Berners, inventor of the world wide web, would have us do. These technologies bridge the gap between the digital data and the physical world in way that has never before been achieved. It quite literally brings the data and information necessary to enhance your personal knowledge directly to you- right before your very eyes.

Our time of knowledge at your fingertips is beginning to give way to the new possibilities for metadata access and it is exciting! It's not as if Glass users are never going to take them off. There is always a time and a place for its uses, like any technology. There are endless applications for these devices and no level of skepticism or fashion-policing is going to impede the progress of our technology. Once the naysayers really interact with the device, I can't imagine they will think it's junk- it's just an adjustment like any other. It wasn't so long ago that the concept of the internet was a "vague, but exciting," and it's time we open up to the new possibilities available to us.