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Friday, June 19, 2009
Thought Leaders
Pattie Maes on interfaces and innovation
By Mass High Tech staff
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She works in a laboratory where the focus is on how we interact with computers, how we work with information, and how computers and information may sense what we need through things like SixSense, a wearable interface: Pattie Maes, an associate professor in MIT’s Program in Media Arts and Sciences, leads research in human-computer interfaces at MIT’s Media Lab. She was named a Mass High Tech All-Star in 1996 for her work on collaborative filtering — the basis for systems that, for example, help consumers find products that people with similar interests have bought. She recently spoke with MHT associate editor James M. Connolly about the lab and innovation.
What’s going on with the Media Lab?
The media lab is a very interdisciplinary laboratory where we develop new technologies that empower people. That is the common denominator of our work. We try to empower people to express themselves better, to learn more efficiently, to relate to others better.
There is a wealth of information available, and most of it these days is digitized. I feel that we still don’t have good ways to know what information may be available and what is relevant to whatever we are currently doing, to be able to access information, especially while we are in the middle of something. The current computers and the interfaces that we use, they are not really the ideal information-accessing devices.
Today’s hardware devices, the iPhone as well, they all assume that you completely shift your attention to the device if you want to access some information. You have to basically completely drop what you are in the middle of and redirect your attention to the screen and use a pointing device, whether it’s the mouse or your own fingers, and then use a keyboard to enter information. It’s very disruptive.
Do you see your work here leading to specific products or does your work inspire other people to incorporate what you learn into other products?
Some of each actually. We are more of an applied research laboratory as opposed to basic research. We work closely with industry actually. That is different about the Media Lab versus other laboratories at MIT. We are primarily funded by industry, and we have our industry sponsors visit here on a daily basis. Every day there are a few of them around, talking to us or looking at some of our prototypes. Some of what we do is just publishing papers and submitting things to conferences that may be picked up by other people down the line. We also commercialize things, in that a lot of our students start companies when they graduate. And a third way in which our work impacts society is through our sponsors. We work with our sponsors and they take some of our ideas and may commercialize them or take parts of them and integrate them in their products.
Where do the ideas come from?
This is very much a collaborative place where we try to put the right ingredients in this big sort of blender that is the media lab. Some of those ingredients are the latest toys and gadgets.
Another ingredient is people with very different backgrounds. Ultimately we have technology in common, the fact that we like to invent things, build things, invent new technologies. One of the interesting things about this place and one of the key ingredients that makes stuff work, is that we have different backgrounds. It forces people to think about the complete picture.
When you look outside the university, in terms of young people today, do you see innovation?
Actually, with all the development that has happened in the last 10 to 15 years, there’s new appreciation for people to see themselves as creative consumers and producers. People are making music, not just buying music. They are writing blogs, not just reading articles. But I think that increasingly we will see that in the physical domain as well. That may be the next trend to happen. The do-it-yourself movement is on the rise. It encourages people to create in the physical domain and design things themselves. I’m actually very excited by this whole phenomenon.
What do you see in the marketplace that intrigues you, in terms of technology and how information is used?
There’s definitely some innovation happening right now in terms of the hardware with the Microsoft Surface table and the Apple iPhone. This is really the first time in 40 or 50 years that we are venturing out of the typical interface of a mouse and a keyboard and a screen. It’s encouraging that in the commercial area there is now some interest in thinking beyond the form factor of the typical computer. On the software side, there is not as much innovation.
Even with the iPhone app store?
The app store is, of course, very exciting. It’s a more open model. If Apple had held control over that, they never in a million years would have come up with the wealth of applications there right now.
What makes you do what you do?
It’s fun. We are having a great time. We are optimists and we believe that technology can improve the world and improve the quality of life. And we have shown ways that we can do. We are here because we want to be here — it’s our hobby, our passion.
Have there been projects where you say it’s not going to work or the world’s not ready for it yet?
It seems like things always take a lot longer to have an impact than we think. When we develop something here, we think it’s just around the corner, tomorrow you will be able to buy it in a store. It takes a long time for things to have a real impact in society. I’m starting to learn that, everything takes a long time. Also, timing is very important also. If you have a great idea, you may introduce it at one point, and it goes totally down, while 10 years later you may reintroduce it and it’s a great success.
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