Call me a cynic, but this is just more of the same gosh-wow fluff that the Media Lab keeps putting out. It's not quite as wacky as videoconferencing for parrots, but it's also not hugely novel. I suspect that a research group at any other university would not have got funding for this work, and that any attention paid to this work will primarily be because it comes out of the Media Lab.
The Media Lab's certainly always been good at self-promotion. The much-hyped Media Lab Europe springs to mind, where they basically got given the old Guinness hopstore in Dublin, much to the chagrin of the rest of Ireland's CS departments who could have no doubt made good use of the money themselves. After a few years of presumably being a great big money-sink and not producing much of any use it was closed down this year after MIT and the Irish government "failed to agree on a new funding framework" (i.e. "It's a great big money-sink and we're not going to pay for it any more"). They were the "Everything they do is cool!" darlings of the media in the middle of the dot-com boom, a role which has since been taken over by Google.
However, videoconferencing for parrots sounds like something straight out of Python. (Monty, not the language).
However, videoconferencing for parrots sounds like something straight out of Python. (Monty, not the language).
It's genuine, trust me. It was one of the pet projects of Irene Pepperberg (http://web.media.mit.edu/~impepper/) - there are some brief details here (http://web.media.mit.edu/~impepper/petprojects/interpet/interpet.pdf) (PDF).
I agree that the Media Darling crown has effectively been taken from the Media Lab by Google, but I think that's partly because Google's work is more directly applicable to the majority of users, rather than being the product of a postgraduate students fever dream.
Hmmm. MIT Media Lab : computer science research institutions :: Kevin Warwick : computer science researchers. Discuss.
"The brush is one of the few tools we allow ourselves to be touched by."
Huh? Does she have some forcefield she uses to manipulate hammers and so on? Can we not be touched in the other sense by tools such as pianos and guitars? I think she be touched in yet another sense.
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-15 04:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-15 06:29 pm (UTC)However, videoconferencing for parrots sounds like something straight out of Python. (Monty, not the language).
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-16 10:29 am (UTC)It's genuine, trust me. It was one of the pet projects of Irene Pepperberg (http://web.media.mit.edu/~impepper/) - there are some brief details here (http://web.media.mit.edu/~impepper/petprojects/interpet/interpet.pdf) (PDF).
I agree that the Media Darling crown has effectively been taken from the Media Lab by Google, but I think that's partly because Google's work is more directly applicable to the majority of users, rather than being the product of a postgraduate students fever dream.
Hmmm. MIT Media Lab : computer science research institutions :: Kevin Warwick : computer science researchers. Discuss.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-15 04:40 pm (UTC)Huh? Does she have some forcefield she uses to manipulate hammers and so on? Can we not be touched in the other sense by tools such as pianos and guitars? I think she be touched in yet another sense.