Whereas today's mainstream Human Computer Interaction (HCI) research addresses functional concerns – the needs of users, practical applications, and usability evaluation – Tangible Bits and Radical Atoms are driven by vision. This is because today's technologies will become obsolete in one year, and today's applications will be replaced in 10 years, but true visions – we believe – can last longer than 100 years.
Tangible Bits seeks to realize seamless interfaces between humans, digital information, and the physical environment by giving physical form to digital information, making bits directly manipulable and perceptible. Our goal is to invent new design media for artistic expression as well as for scientific analysis, taking advantage of the richness of human senses and skills – as developed through our lifetime of interaction with the physical world.
Radical Atoms takes a leap beyond Tangible Bits by assuming a hypothetical generation of materials that can change form and properties dynamically, becoming as reconfigurable as pixels on a screen. Radical Atoms is the future material that can transform its’ shape, conform to constraints, and inform the users of their affordances. Radical Atoms is a vision for the future of human-material interaction, in which all digital information has a physical manifestation so that we can interact directly with it.
I will present the trajectory of our vision-driven design research from Tangible Bits towards Radical Atoms, and a variety of interaction design projects that were presented and exhibited in Arts, Design, and Science communities.
Did you know that your ability to see, pay attention, and remember is not the same everywhere in your line of sight? New ground-breaking science from the Miller Lab at MIT has shown that our brains have our own individual cognitive sweet spots and blind spots, where we have high bandwidth and low bandwidth. SplitSage's cognitive analytics profile each person's unique abilities. Heads-up displays can be individualized to maximize information and minimize distractions for each user. The location of key data can be based on an operator’s cognitive sweet spots and blind spots. Each person can build on their own strengths and address their weaknesses to improve situational awareness, performance and safety.
Stationary energy storage seeks to disrupt the electricity markets on a global scale. Safe, inexpensive energy storage, the missing link in the electricity grid’s 140-year history, will: (1) supplement large capital infrastructure upgrades with low-cost storage; (2) pair with renewables to realize cost effective alternatives to fossil fuel generation; (3) upturn legislative and regulatory restrictions, ushering in digital and energy-sharing economic and societal opportunities.
PolyJoule has developed a non-lithium form of energy storage that is built purposely for the electricity grid. Safety is molecularly designed into our battery chemistry, streamlining permitting and usability. PolyJoule batteries can respond to both base loads and peak loads in microseconds, allowing the same energy storage system to participate in multiple power markets and deployment use cases. Upfront asset costs are low. Lifetime battery reliability is high. This lecture will introduce PolyJoule, our proprietary energy storage chemistry, its performance profile, and how congested electricity grids, renewable adaptation, and environmental tidal waves all benefit from low-cost, high-power energy storage assets.