Friday, November 28, 2003

Human Connectedness Via Technology The Media Lab Europe has devised a way to help families who are in different parts of the world maintain a connectedness. The basic idea in Habitat is that by using RFID tags to create an awareness of the other person's daily routines, it will offer a sense of awareness and reassurance that they are virtually present. To accomplish this, objects and furniture were tagged with the RFID tags. So that "unique RFID tags are embedded in objects typically placed on coffee tables at each site, such as cups, plates, books, and so on. Placing these items on the table causes messages to be sent to the remote table, which displays a graphical representation of the objects. The system operates in both directions, conveying impressions of presence and activity around the coffee tables at each site." In family relationships, awareness of daily cycles and routines (or more importantly, deviation from these patterns) is particularly important. Habitat explores the potential of using household furniture as a network of distributed ambient display appliances for conveying this kind of awareness between family members separated by a distance. 3:32:31 PM    comment []

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