Haptics make us happy!

My sixth grade teacher, Mr. Brightbill, had asked us to write an essay about what we see for the future. I wrote that someday we would be able to wear gloves that would take someone's temperature, "see" their blood sugar level, and take their vital signs.

Some kids wrote about space adventures and monsters. I wrote about what would impact our health. Mr. Brightbill thought I was a way ahead of my time. Turns out not by much. Haptics are becoming very prevalent in the medical field.

I think haptics will have so much more impact for accessibility.

Look what it can do for the visually impared with the iPhone interface.

There is even haptics research and use for Second Life!

I think Mr. Brightbill would have proclaimed this Genius.

Augmented Reality and Foursquare

I just signed up for Foursquare and navigated to my favorite Mexican restaurant in Austin and left a tip for folks.
I am really excited about how AR and mashups can really work. What if I left a note about the margaritas? Not to get the salt?


Someday, will the afore-mentioned notes/reviews/tips hover over the margarita glass? Or our beef in the supermarket?
Will the product information overlay the meat giving me fat content and where the cow came from? What if you could get real-time reviews over-layed on the product? The possibilities are endless!

My thesis was about using the electromagnetic fields around a theremin to control a huge art exhibit of student submissions. We defined the range of the theremin signals and depending on how close/far you were to the theremin electromagnetic field - that is how rapidly you could source through the artwork.

I also used an electromagnetic plate to program the weight and electronic field of an apple moving up/down and away from the plate. Depending on the state of the apple and how far/near it was to the field- certain audio files were triggered. It also affected the rate of play of the audio files.


I love the idea of using our surrounding space to check on our correspondence, products, friends!