Leo Bonanni Paper

Smart Objects - Smart Spaces

The main point in Leo’s presentation was ubiquitous computing which is the future of the computer, or rather the deconstruction of the computer because computer will no longer be needed. On of the coolest things that I thought Leo talked about was how everything that we’ll use in the future will be “smart”. A couple examples that I thought were really awesome were the umbrella that’s handle glowed blue when its going to rain that day also the I/O brush that could take a picture of anything and then paint it onto a specified surface. He broke down computing into four categories tangible interface, ambient displays, augmented reality, and wearable computers.

Ambient displays refer to how computers will be all around us. Devices will have things that they are specifically designed to do; the umbrella and the brush mentioned earlier are good examples. There were also some other really cool things too; one being a music bottle which when opened would play a specific kind of music like jazz. Another really cool thing was the Microsoft surface, which is a coffee table that is a computer screen, and you were able to share music and pictures just by placing your camera or mp3 player on the surface. The screen shows your play lists right on the table and it’s amazing that my kids may be using this device.

Augmented reality is changing the outlook on what we perceive to be reality. An example that Leo mentioned was the human pacman, which was a guy who designed a program so, you could walk through life in a pacman game. He made a helmet backpack that held the software and he would walk around the city eating the dots and running away fro ghosts. There were also these things called electronic tags, which could be placed anywhere and with the use of a smart camera would display messages that were left behind.

Wearable technology is changing how we live our lives on the go, look at how cell phones have changed the way we communicate with each other. Now things are in motion that could get rid of cell phones altogether and replace them with earring or shirt button phones. Other technologies like the ipod Nike are changing the way we work out, even fashion shows are mixing technology and clothing to change the way we dress.

Overall I thought it was a really insightful and was amazed at where technology is headed and I’m excited to hopefully use some of these products.