Day 4 already. The Monday is always a bit different. Hard to pinpoint why, maybe because you feel you have passed half of the conference. Or because it seems a bit more quiet because some of the Americans have to go back to work after the weekend. I did not have to stand in line for the sessions I attended.
I had a day with some different types of talks and topics. Starting with a wearable/3D printing/new material, to biomaterials, via surveillance and trust, to sharing service Lyft, to sensorbased storytelling and finally on new models of the Internet.
The first panel was organised by the Carnegie Mellon University and showed four projects on expressive interactive interfaces. On flexible 3D printed clothes. And another on expressive and learning light. A plaster 3D printer was interesting for the way it followed and learned from human movements. The fourth showed two examples on 3D mapping of body shape and movement and the translation to materials. Tactum and Reverb projects, see the site of Madlab.
The merge of technology and human went a step further in the talk of Robert Langer. He showed how far we are by making implantable devices that fight diseases. In his talk he told about the long road it takes from research to approval and treatment. The developments are going rapidly though now and it has become a 3rd approach to treat cancer. See my photos in the Storify with some details.
The interesting thing on the session on surveillance was the pannelist that was a former NSA director, Stewart Baker. It delivers definitely good discussions on the role of government versus peoples literacy.
Privacy was discussed and how it has almost always been tied to your ability to pay. And how neutral is an algorithm? Every algorithm is editorial.
Trust was the key point of discussion, trust in governments. But it subject was to big for a good panel discussion.
Stewart Baker: The reason Silicon Valley is less sensitive to privacy is because they’re already living in the future.
One of the future routes was laid out in the last session on the ‘end of the internet’. Not literally, but it discussed the new forms of internet infrastructure with mesh networks between mobile phones. This will be especially interesting in developing countries, but it could also grow into the extra layer to the private social networks we all are using with our Whatsapp groups.
You could imagine that services like Uber and Lyft create their own mesh networks and provide the internet connection for clients as extra product. Something that was not discussed by the founder of Lyft – the American only Uber-x competitor. A smart guy that understands that the world is changing if our mobility changed. We use lots of land and energy to mobility, in LA it is half of the city space.
A panel on storytelling engines for smart environments learned us that those engines are more methods. The work from Meghan Athavale from Lumo Play showed how much playful design and storytelling are linked.
Making the story first is crucial for developing a model for the new sensor-based world, the technology is an augmentation on the real world as Lance Weiler said. Which is true but we saw earlier how those two concepts ‘human’ and ‘tech’ are integrating. Even in the physical space. Making stories and let people experience them is also a way to learn on the consequences. We need to have insight in the decisions the AI makes for us.
It seems that we are moving very fast to marriage of tech and human interactions, but the interfaces for understanding both sides are crucial to move ahead.
target is new 