Gizmodo: Media Lab

MIT Media Lab's Siftables Are Cool, But Ultimately Useless

Jason Chen — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 20:30:09 EDT

These Siftables from MIT Media Labs are small Post It-sized displays with processing power built in, allowing it to communicate with other Siftables as well as detect motion and proximity. You'll have to see what that means in the video, as they have different examples of shaking these Siftables, connecting them together, and having each respond accordingly to the one next to it. In its current form it's just a neat toy that doesn't really do much, but if you can adapt this to say, cellphones or MP3 players—stuff people actually carry around with them every day—it might make for some neat interactivity when you and your friends meet up and make your iPhones kiss. [MIT via OhGizmo]

Bar Of Soap Is Multi-Talented Gadget That Susses Out What It Is Just By the Way You Hold It

AddyDugdale — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 08:20:12 EST

Researchers at MIT's Media Lab have come up with the Bar of Soap, a gadget that works out exactly what it is depending on how it is held. So, hold it like a camera, and you can take pics, hold it like a cellphone, and it makes calls. Basically developed as a prototype to test the grasp classification concept, the technology behind the Bar of Soap is expected to trickle down into future gizmos.

The unit itself is made out of plastic, and incorporates a touchscreen, an accelerometer, as well as 72 touch sensors, and internal Bluetooth. Currently 95 percent accurate, the Bar of Soap's creators tested it in five ways: as a camera, gamepad, PDA, phone and remote control . [MIT via Oh!Gizmo]

$130 One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) GUI

Jason Chen — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 08:00:31 EDT

Here's a sneak peak at the MIT ~~$100~~ $130 OLPC project PC's graphical user interface (GUI).

The project is being handled by Fedora developers, which is a a flavor of linux usually thought of as more suitable for beginners. There's a bunch of flavors of linux, but we won't get into it here. Sugar (its project name), well, looks a whole lot like standard Fedora, but has a good number of changes from the vanilla Fedora Core 5 builds that you can download and run on your personal PC if you like.

You can't underestimate how much the design of this system flies directly in the face of the conventional wisdom in the US of how IT in a school is supposed to work. With mesh networking, there won't be a hard firewall between the school and the community, or the rest of the web. Chat isn't diabled; it is explicitly enabled. The underlying software is not locked down; it is unlocked by design. If you've been writing this project off as a simple attempt to distribute cheap hardware, prepare to have your eyes opened.

As you can see in the picture, the laptop has the grown-up version of web and chat, not a completely dumbed down one. – Jason Chen

Trying Out the OLPC User Interface [eSchoolNews via Digg]

$100 PC Now Costs $130, Due in April, 2007

Charlie White — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 09:31:40 EDT

Nicholas Negroponte of MIT's Media Lab showed off the latest version of his $100 OLPC (One Laptop Per Child), the Linux-based laptop that will begin shipping to developing countries starting in April, 2007. The 2-pound laptop won't cost $100, though. Its price will actually be between $130 and $140 not including shipping, but Negroponte expects that $100 price point to be reached by the end of 2008 when manufacturing has scaled up to 5 to 6 million units.

Negroponte added that pricing depends on how much RAM is installed in the low-cost PCs, but another key element in the unit's pricing is its sunlight-readable display, which he said won't be done until August or September. Seven countries are showing interest in the PC, with Nigeria, Brazil, Thailand and Argentina most interested in the concept. How does the cheap laptop run? According to Negroponte, "Like a bat out of hell." In that case, we want one, too. – Charlie White

Negroponte's now $130 PC due in April 2007 [ZD Net]