The computer system, which you wear around your neck, projects information on the world around you, which you can then manipulate with your hands. Pretty soon, you may be able to build your own for about $350. Mistry told a TED India panel this week he didn’t want to subject SixthSense to corporate whims.
After the jump, watch Fluid Interface Group director Patti Maes present the technology to the TED conference in March. (more…)
Local designer Lauren McCarthy, ex- of MIT’s Media Lab, CSAIL, and Visual Arts Program, developed a hat that detects whether or not you are smiling, and if not, it stabs you in the back of the head: The Happiness Hat.
McCarthy’s web site says the hat is the first in a series of “tools for improved social interacting.” She further explains:
An enclosed bend sensor attaches to the cheek and measures smile size, a servo motor moves a metal spike into the head inversely proportional to the degree of smile. Through repeated use of this conditioning device you can train your brain to smile all the time. The device runs on Arduino.
For my dollar, when I see someone walking down the street with a constant smile on their face, I think “deranged,” not “happy.” But then again, that might be exactly why I need a Happiness Hat.
Summit Global Group, PLR IP Holdings LLC, and the Impossible Project, a group that had bought a former Polaroid plant in Amsterdam with the intent to manufacture its own instant photography product, have made a deal to manufacture new Polaroid instant cameras and film in 2010.
According to the Boston Herald, PLR IP Holdings is co-owned by Boston-based financial services firm Gordon Brothers Group.
The former Route 128 powerhouse auctioned off its former headquarters in Waltham on Friday. Its assets, including its intellectual property and name, were sold in April to New York-based private equity firm Patriarch Partners.
Even as it fell, Polaroid’s instant photography technology had fans — organized, proactive fans that started projects like Poladroid, a web site that gives digital photos that slightly off Polaroid color; Polanoid, an online gallery of the world’s scanned Polaroid photos; the unnecessary-to-explain Save Polaroid; and the Impossible Project, which had been buying capital to manufacture a similar product. So bringing the product back isn’t that shocking given that some people were bent out of shape enough to buy a factory.
On the Daily Show, William Kamkwamba talked about building an electricity-generating windmill for his family’s farm in Malawi, using a library book as a guide, at the age of 14. He’s since presented at TEDGlobal 2007 in Tanzania, and wrote a book, “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.”
Toward the end of the interview, Kamkwamba explains how he found out about Google, at the TED conference: “I was like, ‘Where was this Google all this time?’”
Tonight is Game 1 of the Red Sox’ five-game divisional series against the Angels, which creates two near-certainties: Another Sox/Yankees ALCS; and “worker productivity” becoming an oxymoron at offices throughout New England tomorrow. This thing doesn’t start till 9:37 p.m., for Hendu’s sake, and postseason baseball tends to go well with alcohol.
But what baseball taketh away, it can also giveth, or whatever. The sport has inspired some nifty innovations in analytics, robotics and … let’s call it life sciences.
MIT News Office photo
• In spring training, the Sox, who even give their IT guy World Series rings, supplemented hitting coach Dave Magadan with the MIT Media Lab, naturally. For the last few years, researchers from the Media Lab’s Responsive Environments Group, has been strapping sensors to minor leagers while they’re batting at the Sox camp at Fort Myers. The info from accelerometers and gyroscopes could provide insight on differences in swing mechanics during a hot streak or a slump.
• Using an arm developed at MIT, University of Tokyo researchers have developed baseball-playing robots that could make the Fall Classic either more interesting, or entirely pointless, to watch. Think of all the time and money the Sox would save on scouting, not to mention free agency. And J.D. Drew would presumably be injured far less often if he were a robot. (more…)
Texas-based Ad Astra Rocket Co. tested a prototype of its VASIMR VX-200 plasma rocket last week. The rocket, running at 1.8 million degrees, is a larger version of the plasma rocket MIT researcher Oleg Batishchev developed for satellites to position themselves. NASA plans to test the argon gas-powered rocket on the International Space Station in 2013 in anticipation of using it for a mission to Mars.
Ad Astra CEO/former astronaut/MIT alum/father of state senator Sonia Chang-Diaz Franklin Chang-Diaz developed the technology. The rocket would cut down the amount of fuel needed for a mission, and shorten the trip to Mars to 39 days.
After the jump, watch more video of the rocket, plus the plasma rocket Batishchev made out of a Coke bottle and a Coke can.
Called CatholicTV, the application includes reflections, Mass celebrations, recitations of the rosary and a few other features.
A test found the application to be a bit clumsy, but any newspaper stock analyst will tell you that divine hostility toward the media is no surprise these days.
The Globe takes a look at some recent developments in the 50-year old field of personal rapid transit — which is like the T, except you get your own, automated trolley, on-demand. So I guess it’s like the T only in that they both run on tracks.
The Globe story neglects to mention Belmont-based startup Rail-Pod Inc., which is looking to deploy the technology in tourist areas. I checked in with Rail-Pod co-founder Brendan English via e-mail, and he said the startup is developing its vehicle, and will be at the Rail-Volution conference at the Westin Boston Waterfront at the end of the month.
Don’t get too excited, fans of bizarre cosmetic treatments — that lady at the salon with the crazy shades isn’t getting the whites of her eyes whitened. She’s watching TV.
The Herald reports Mizu, a hair salon in the Back Bay, is offering similarly named but entirely different MyVu personal video displays to its customers to use while they’re getting their hair done. The MyVu display looks like a pair of futuristic sunglasses, but hooks up to an iPod to play video.
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The Globe story neglects to mention Belmont-based startup 
Don’t get too excited, fans of bizarre cosmetic treatments — that lady at the salon with the crazy shades isn’t getting the whites of her eyes whitened. She’s watching TV.
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