Monday, March 28. 2011Watson is a Woman
Richard Sumner: Often when we meet people for the first time, some physical characteristic strikes us. Now what is the first thing you notice in a person?
Bunny Watson: Whether the person is male or female. I followed Watson's debut on Jeopardy about as much as the next guy - the story was unavoidable there for awhile. I read Richard Powers' essay on the pre-paywall version of the New York Times, watched the flashy documentary about Flashy designer Josh Davis, responsible for the avatar seen on screen. I assumed like others that the AI software was named for Thomas Watson, IBM's founder, or perhaps even for the sidekicks to Alexander Graham Bell or Sherlock Holmes. (Though each of the latter options seemed a mismatch.) Having finally watched the 1957 film Desk Set, starring Hepburn and Tracy, I think I have found Watson's true origins – in Hepburn's character Bunny Watson. In the film (adapted from a play), Watson has just returned from a demonstration of the new IBM Electronic Brain (announced by Thomas J. Watson?), to find that her office at a large national television network has been occupied by an IBM "methods engineer" named Richard Sumner (played by Spencer Tracy.) 1 Sumner, who in addition to being a management science expert is an MIT-trained computer engineer, is engaged in a month-long project of studying Watson's office and staff – the Reference Section of the company. Watson and the three women she supervises are the human Google for the company – their phones constantly ring with obscure questions - some of which are so familiar to the women that they can answer without effort, others of which require access to files and books. Sumner's job, known to us and only suspected and feared by the other main characters, is to design a computer installation for the office. As the company wants some big publicity for this event, Sumner is to keep his mission a secret, leading to greater suspicion on the part of Watson and her team of an impending disaster – would a computer replace their labor?
The film's narrative is anchored by two significant tests. At the beginning, Watson is tested by Sumner, and determined to be a superb computing agent. She is able to count, tabulate, store and recall with uncanny precision, and using counter-rational or supra-rational algorithms. Later, during the story's second big test, the finally installed computer fields some initial queries in its position as reference librarian, and fails.
EMERAC fails because of poor context awareness, something that the mere typist assigned to inputting data doesn't know to compensate for. In the end, EMERAC is only successful - and therefore of value to humanity - when operated by Watson herself, who is able to enter in the right information to makeup for the computer's poor contextual knowledge. So the conclusion takes us to a happy marriage of computer and operator, in which both are necessary to keeping things running smoothly and efficiently, in the context of a growing world of "big data." (The final problem, and the one we see EMERAC answer correctly, is the question "What is the weight of the Earth?") EMERAC is thus more like Wolfram Alpha than the contemporary Watson. The new Watson, named for an operator rather than for a computer, is presented to television viewers as an operator of the Jeopardy interface. (The game is, after all, a button-pushing contest.) In the new Watson, a man - at least in popular understanding - has replaced a woman at the switch. But perhaps a new configuration of labor has emerged anyway. Consider the change from the former, in which Sumner engineers and maintains the machine in real time, while Bunny operates it, to the newer version, in which multiple sites across multiple temporalities are responsible for the resulting computing event. Alex Trebeck is in the role of the telephone from Desk Set, merely passing along the queries originating from elsewhere. The Watson AI, dressed in Davis' cartoony dataviz rather than Charles LeMaire's fashions, fields the questions and answers them as a sort of merged operator and machine. Behind the scenes and long before the event, a small army of researchers programmed the AI and fed it data. In Desk Set, this latter job is also visible, through the work of Bunny's staff, who help deliver all the content for the machine to digest. So with the Jeopardy Watson stunt, we see primarily two changes – a person where a phone used to be, and a machine where there used to be a machine-plus-operator. The sum total of laborers has remain unchanged, though we are less one woman, and plus one man. This cybernetic brain needs no operator, but it does need a user – and it certainly needs an audience. (1) The whole story takes place at Rockefeller Center and bears many stylistic resemblances to the current NBC sitcom 30 Rock – including a page named Kenneth. This post was originally published on Critical Commons.
Posted by Patrick Keller
in Culture & society, Interaction design, Science & technology
at
09:13
Defined tags for this entry: artificial reality, computing, culture & society, interaction design, interface, knowledge, presence, science & technology
Monday, February 21. 2011French Firm Quarks Designs Paint That Turns Entire Wall Into Light SwitchVia nexus404 ----- While the bedside table and lamp has been a staple of our lives since there was such a thing as a bed and a table, there is now a new invention being floated around by French firm Quarks that may make it obsolete. With Quarks’ new paint, the entire wall acts as an on and off switch meaning that you no longer need to put a lamp close enough for you to reach over and turn off. The On/Off Paint will record a single touch and carry an electric current that will turn a device on or off. The best part of the paint is that it does not take a great deal of wiring in order to make it work, simply determine the area you want to paint and as long as it is around a plug you’ll be able to touch any part of that area. While this isn’t currently available in the United States, if the company knows what’s good for it, the On/Off Switch Paint will be here soon.
Thursday, February 17. 2011114.psd Type [Mac]Personal comment: The resurgence of the old, useless and overwhelming "pop-up" style (even though this consists in windows opening) that we somehow miss since Jodi went "quiet"! Thursday, August 26. 2010Skinput: Appropriating the Body as an Input Surface----- Personal comment:
Still a bit heavy stuff to wear so to say... Not to mention that you should also wear a projector (but at one point, skin as a screen --body inks-- will certainly become possible). Interesting approach nonetheless to consider the body as a potential input device. There are many different approaches regarding this question.
Posted by Patrick Keller
in Interaction design, Science & technology
at
09:01
Defined tags for this entry: artificial reality, interaction design, interface, interferences, mediated, science & technology
Monday, August 23. 2010Living Wall lets you control your environment using hand gesturesVia DVice What if you could simply run your hand across the wall to turn on embedded lighting or music? That's the thinking behind the Living Wall, an interactive wallpaper designed by a group called High-Low Tech. In most homes you need switches for everything from controlling the lighting and audio system, to running appliances. The Living Wall is intended to take embrace that technology, while creating a much less obtrusive human interface. High-LowTech says you can even send a message to a friend with a simple swipe on the wall. The Living Wall is on display at the Fuller Craft Museum near Boston through February 11 of next year. Related Links:
Posted by Christian Babski
in Interaction design, Science & technology
at
15:19
Defined tags for this entry: architecture, hardware, interaction design, interface, science & technology
Wednesday, August 18. 2010Miracle Film Turns Any Surface into a TouchscreenVia Mashable
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by Jolie O'Dell
![]() Here’s one for all you lovers of futuristic interfaces. An interactive hardware company called Displax has begun marketing Skin, a paper-thin, flexible film that would transform any non-metal surface into an interactive touchscreen. You could place Skin on any surface, transparent or opaque, flat or curved, and use it to display any interactive content you like. Displax’s multi-touch technology can detect up to 16 fingers at once and can also detect air movement. Skin is completely transparent and works on surfaces that are also transparent; you can place Skin on a glass surface and interact with content displayed under the glass. This unique hardware operates via a grid of nanowires embedded Skin’s polymer film. Each time a user makes contact with the surface, either by blowing on it or directly touching it, “a small electrical disturbance is detected allowing the micro-processor controller to pinpoint the movement or direction of the air flow,” according to Displax. We can imagine millions of cool use cases for such a technology — business presentations, medicine, museums, schools, and gaming to start. The possibilities are as endless as our collective and ever-growing want and need to interact with digital content through multi-touch interfaces. What do you think of Skin? Is this a product you’d like to try or use? More About: displax, Film, Hardware, interaction, interface, skin, touchscreen, trending Wednesday, August 11. 2010Smart vending machineVia NextNature ----- At Tokyo’s Shinagawa Station visitors can now select beverages from a 47-inch touch panel.
Smart vending machines in the streets show that Big Brother is being naturally accepted in a pixel consuming society.
Posted by Patrick Keller
in Culture & society, Interaction design
at
13:22
Defined tags for this entry: culture & society, digital, interaction design, interface, marketing, shopping, surveillance
Tuesday, August 10. 2010Intimacy by Studio Roosegaarde and V2_Via Dezeen
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by Joe Mills
These dresses by Dutch designers Studio Roosegaarde and V2 become transparent when approached. (more...) Related Links:Personal comment: Quite active in the field of architecture & interaction design, environment design, Studio Roosegaarde makes a try in the field of fashion design with this interactive garment. Wednesday, June 23. 2010Arctic Opening (Fenêtre Arctique)
By fabric | ch ----- Arctic Opening is a new installation by fabric | ch, curated by Seconde Nature (curatorship: Pierre-Emmanuel Reviron) that we will install next week on the Frioul Islands in Marseille (South of France, Mediterranean Sea), in the context of the Festival MIMI (Festival des musiques innovantes et actuelles). The installation will be freely accessible to everyone from the 30th of June to the 14th of July and is part of an outdoor exhibition presenting several works of art / experimental architecture (among which Nicolas Reeves, Lee Patterson).
The aim of the project is to let appear a "second day" made of a large artificial ligthing, between Marseille's sunsets and sunrises, when everything becomes dark and quiet on the islands. This illumination will have its source up north, beyond the polar circle, where the sun shines 24 hours long during summer. Thus the continuous day of the arctic summer will be transported to the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Arctic Opening will light up a zone of the arid landscape of the Frioul close to an industrial ruin, channeling a fictional catastrophic future of an Arctic Ocean free of ice with the present of this mediterranean island, already surrounded by sea routes and heavy tourism. The result will become a metis landscape, all nights long: an arctic mediterranean, remote day at night.
The overall installation will look a bit like a scientific expedition, with sensing devices and climatic interfaces set up under a tent, which will analyze the polar meteorologic data and control the variations of intensity of Arctic Opening. -------------------------------- ARCTIC OPENING
-------------------------------- Original Text (in French):
FENÊTRE ARCTIQUE Chaque jour, lorsque la nuit tombe sur nos paysages urbanisés, dans nos villes, nos rues ou nos ports, un autre jour se lève, électrique. C'est littéralement une " seconde journée " qui commence : celle des néons et des enseignes, des éclairages publics au sodium, au mercure ou à la fluorescence, celle encore des fenêtres et des vitrines illuminées, celle enfin d'une effervescence nocturne que nous ne connaissions pas il y a encore deux siècles. Bien qu'aujourd'hui nous n'y pensions plus guère, tant ce " deuxième jour " fait dorénavant partie de notre quotidien de citadins, cet éclairage fut une conquête : par le feu en premier lieu, par le gaz ensuite, et plus récemment par l'électricité. Cette lumière " fabriquée " permit d'abord de prolonger de façon artificielle le jour durant la nuit, d'éclairer la pénombre, mais aussi d'architecturer et de transformer de façon radicale notre relation au temps, au paysage, à l'espace. Elle permit surtout de dépasser cette donnée naturelle, immémoriale et incontournable qu'a toujours été le cycle du jour et de la nuit induit par la rotation de la Terre sur elle-même, et de redéfinir ainsi l'espace architectural et urbain. Cependant, ce jour devenu " perpétuel " grâce à l'électricité interféra dès le XIXème siècle avec nos rythmes naturels, produisant des modifications spectaculaires : émancipés de l'alternance diurne et nocturne imposée par la nature, les habitudes sociales et les usages des habitants bénéficiant de cette " découverte " se retrouvèrent immédiatement et irrémédiablement transformés. On se mit à vivre et travailler la nuit, à se divertir de plus en plus sous un éclairage artificiel, et parfois, en compensation, à dormir le jour… à l'abri des persiennes (autre système, mécanique celui-ci, de contrôle du climat et de la lumière). On se mit aussi à concevoir de nouvelles architectures qui ne nécessitaient plus d'éclairage naturel. En quelques décennies, l'éclairage artificiel modifia en profondeur les modes de vie des citadins, mais pas uniquement : les oiseaux se mirent à chanter la nuit à proximité des lampadaires, les insectes à s'agglutiner sous les projecteurs et les étoiles à s'effacer partiellement du ciel nocturne urbain, ouvrant ainsi la porte à un univers étrange, transformé et où se mêlent cycles naturels et artificiels. Pertes et gains donc. Ce nouvel environnement fut également marqué par la volonté des hommes d'en maîtriser l'" aléatoire " ou le " sauvage " pour prendre le contrôle d'un nombre grandissant de facteurs et de dimensions constitutives de leur habitat. Aujourd'hui encore, cette " deuxième journée ", historiquement " industrielle ", demeure souvent un jour à la lumière monotone, à vocation essentiellement fonctionnelle (voir, sécuriser, travailler, mais aussi lire, cuisiner, etc.). La plupart du temps, elle n'évoque rien, et si elle varie, c'est pour rester dans une zone de confort préprogrammée, au contraire des climats lumineux naturels qui jouent continuellement avec le paysage pour offrir différentes occupations et perceptions d'un même environnement. De plus nous commençons à peine à prendre la mesure du coût énergétique de cette entreprise et de sa participation au bilan écologique global négatif de l'humanité. Pourtant, cet environnement, parfois magique, parfois inquiétant, développe pour nous, incontestablement, une poésie des décalages. Ces décalages qui mêlent présents et futurs, il s'agit de les déployer dans une réflexion d'ensemble sur notre espace contemporain et notre consommation d'énergie. Conçu pour le Festival des Musiques Innovantes (MIMI) 2010 à Marseille, sur les îles du Frioul, le projet Fenêtre Arctique n'a donc pas pour objectif de nier cette " deuxième journée ", mais d'en amplifier les aspects sensibles et positifs. Fenêtre Arctique cherche ainsi à développer le potentiel d'imaginaire(s)de l'illumination artificielle, tout en intégrant les nouvelles technologies et les cycles d'éclairage intelligents à faible consommation énergétiques. Dans un environnement désormais mondialisé, perpétuellement interconnecté, où se développent de nouvelles mobilités, temporalités et comportements sociaux aux croisements des fuseaux horaires, ce jour artificiel offre l'occasion d'une ouverture vers d'autres jours, simultanés et distants : une " connexion " imaginaire ou médiatisée avec des contrées où précisément et littéralement, au même instant, il fait jour. Par le biais d'images satellites et de capteurs de données, il est désormais possible d'imaginer ouvrir une " fenêtre " sur une lumière sensible et éloignée dont l'intensité varie, continuellement, où le ciel est ensoleillé, puis couvert, puis éventuellement ensoleillé à nouveau. Une fenêtre " téléportant " de façon abstraite une atmosphère distante, sans mobilité physique, sans moyen de transport autre que le transport des données, de là-bas à ici. Avec Fenêtre Arctique, fabric | ch se propose de créer une telle " ouverture " à large échelle, vers un autre jour, durable et distant : une clarté artificielle, sensible, révélant certains motifs géographiques, lumineux et météorologiques, à l'échelle du globe (à l'été d'un hémisphère correspond en opposé l'hiver de l'autre, au clair l'obscur, au jour perpétuel d'un pôle la nuit de l'autre, etc.). Lorsque la nuit tombe sur Marseille, ce " deuxième jour " se lève en prenant sa source quelque part au nord du Cercle Arctique, aux confins des zones habitables (Hammerfest, Murmansk, Prudhoe Bay, Tuktoyaktuk, Igloolik, Clyde River, Scoresbysund, etc.), où une fois les glaces fondues de nouvelles routes maritimes s'ouvrent et s'ouvriront plus encore à l'avenir. Alimentée par la lumière de contrées, où, en cette saison, le soleil à l'éclairage horizontal ne se couche jamais, où son lever se mêle à son coucher, Fenêtre Arctique reproduit les modulations continuelles de l'été septentrional. Composée de centaines de diodes électroluminescentes (LEDs), cette bande lumineuse longue de dix-huit mètres éclaire un paysage rocailleux, balayé par les vents. Au lever du soleil, elle s'éteint lentement pour laisser apparaître une installation temporaire de tubulures, plantées là pour mener cette expérience en lumière distante. Dressée à proximité, au voisinage d'un vestige militaire et industriel du XXème siècle, une tente abritant des instruments de contrôle évoque une possible expédition scientifique en milieu " hostile ".
La combinaison de l'éclairage produit par cette fenêtre et le paysage des îles du Frioul engendre un territoire composite : Méditerranée arctique, jour distant nocturne. Ce territoire métisse en lumière mélangée est créé à dessein comme environnement prospectif des motifs contemporains de la mobilité et du croisement des fuseaux horaires, des flux et des réseaux, de l'artificialité et de la médiatisation, ou encore pour signaler les étranges similarités topographiques entre les îles arides du Frioul et les territoires arctiques où aucun arbre ne pousse. Comme si ce lieu temporaire au large de Marseille, éclairé par une lumière reconstruite et transportée de l'arctique, pouvait révéler le futur lointain, catastrophique et fictif, de ces territoires nordiques : réchauffés par les dérèglements climatiques, parcourus par le va et vient des bateaux lancés sur les nouvelles routes maritimes ouvertes par la fonte des glaces, les rives du Grand-Nord pourraient commencer à ressembler celles de la Méditerranée. Cet environnement se métisserait alors, lui-aussi, à la façon des populations devenues de plus en plus mobiles au fil du temps : mélanges d'ici et d'ailleurs, de futurs et de présents, de matériel et d'immatériel. Fenêtre Arctique : territoires mélangés.
fabric | ch, juin 2010.
-------------------------------- Project, conception and programmation: fabric | ch Ligths: Lumens8 On site supervision: Etienne Fortin, AMI MIMI Direction: Ferdinand Richard, AMI Curatorship: Pierre-Emmanuel Reviron, Seconde Nature
With the support of Marseille-Provence 2013, MIMI Festival and Lumens8. Arctic Opening is a MIMI 2010 creation by fabric | ch.
Related Links:Personal comment: Note: the MIMI Festival is the occasion to listen to some of the most innovative or profiled musicians in the incredible context of the Frioul Islands. I can for example highly recommend the evening of the 11th of July: Carsten Nicolai a.k.a. Alva Noto in concert with Blixa Bargeld (Einstürzende Neubauten). This promises a lot!
Posted by Patrick Keller
in fabric | ch, Architecture, Art, Territory
at
21:32
Defined tags for this entry: architecture, art, design (interactions), fabric | ch, interface, interferences, landscape, territory, variable, weather
Wednesday, March 03. 2010Dan Hill - New Soft CityDan Hill-Keynote: New Soft City from Interaction Design Association on Vimeo. The way the street feels may soon be defined by the invisible and inaudible. Cities are being laced with sensors, which in turn generate urban informatics experiences, imbuing physical space with real-time behavioural data. The urban fabric itself can become reflexive and responsive to some extent, and there are numerous implications for the design and experience of cities as a result. Multi-sensory interaction design merges with architecture, planning and an urbanism informed by the gentle ambient drizzle of everyday data. Drawing from projects in Sydney, Masdar, Helsinki, Seoul and elsewhere, I’ll explore the opportunities implicit in this new soft city – how we might once again enable a city alive to the touch of its citizens – and what this means for an urban interaction design.
Biography Dan Hill is a designer and urbanist. He’s been working at the forefront of interaction design since the early ‘90s and is responsible for shaping many innovative, popular and critically acclaimed products and services. He is currently a senior consultant at Arup in Sydney. As Head of Interactive Technology & Design at the BBC in London, he led design across their award-winning websites as well as conducting significant strategic work, re-thinking the organisation for the on-demand age. He co-founded the global media product Monocle, and is one of the organisers of the acclaimed architecture and urbanism event Postopolis!, running in New York and Los Angeles. He also writes City of Sound, generally thought of as one of the leading architecture and urbanism websites. For Arup, Dan is exploring the possibilities of urban informatics from a creative, design-led perspective, re-thinking how real-time information networks change streets and cities, neighbourhoods and organisations, mobility and work, play and public space. He works on major urban development projects worldwide. ----- Related Links:Personal comment:
We met last year with Dan Hill during Postopolis!L.A. and just collaborated on a "IBA Smart House" competition, along with Philippe Rahm who was in chare of the main design.
Posted by Patrick Keller
in Architecture, Interaction design
at
15:24
Defined tags for this entry: architecture, data, information, interaction design, interface, interferences, ubiquitous, urbanism
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fabric | rblgThis blog is the survey website of fabric | ch - studio for architecture, interaction and research. We curate and reblog articles, researches, writings, exhibitions and projects that we notice and find interesting during our everyday practice and readings. Most articles concern the intertwined fields of architecture, territory, art, interaction design, thinking and science. From time to time, we also publish documentation about our own work and research, immersed among these related resources and inspirations. This website is used by fabric | ch as archive, references and resources. It is shared with all those interested in the same topics as we are, in the hope that they will also find valuable references and content in it.
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