Sensor Technologies for Responsive Environments

Abstract

The narrow interaction of the keyboard and traditional pointing devices keeps the digital world locked to a desk or palm top, preventing it from fully realizing its potential as a powerful medium of interaction and expression. This talk will describe the work in the Responsive Environments Group at the MIT Media Lab, where the development of new user interface devices for interactive spaces and multimodal, dexterous expression, aims to eliminate this barrier. Current and evolving projects will be described that detect user gesture by exploiting a variety of evolving sensor technologies. Many novel applications of these approaches will be demonstrated, including new musical instruments, interactive musical/graphical spaces, smart rooms, smart furniture, and sensing for wearable computer systems.