Mark Fischetti of Scientific American interviews Professor Sherry Turkle about how relying on technology to document everyday life could affect our lives and memories. “I’d be very interested in teaming up with psychologists who study how much you remember right after an event, if you’ve been wearing Google Glass versus if you’re just relying on your memory,” says Turkle.
In an interview with Robert Siegel of NPR’s All Things Considered, Ethan Zuckerman of the MIT Media Lab apologizes for his role in creating the pop-up ad. Zuckerman expresses concern that the Internet’s reliance on advertising has made people far more accustomed to surveillance by advertisers.
Clive Cookson of The Financial Times reports on the new vision-correcting display developed by researchers from MIT and the University of California, Berkeley. The technology, which automatically corrects for vision problems, “puts the glasses on the display, rather than on your head,” explains Dr. Gordon Wetzstein.
Ethan Zuckerman of the MIT Media Lab writes for The Atlantic about the consequences of designing an Internet funded almost exclusively by advertising. “The fallen state of our Internet is a direct, if unintentional, consequence of choosing advertising as the default model to support online content and services,” writes Zuckerman.
“The MIT Media Lab recently released ScratchJr, a free iPad app that helps children 5-8 learn how to code,” writes Jordan Shapiro for Forbes. The ScratchJr language is a redesign of the original Scratch programming to simplify it for use by younger children.
Laura Baverman of USA Today writes about the MIT Media Lab’s record as a launch pad for innovators and entrepreneurs. “More than 100 companies have sprung from the lab since its founding in 1985,” writes Baverman.
In a piece for Slate about using smart phone to diagnose medical conditions, Aimee Swartz writes about work by MIT Media Lab Fellow Max Little on algorithms that could help smart phones diagnose Parkinson’s disease. The algorithm “will detect specific variations in voice quality, such as tremors, breathlessness, and vocal weakness,” writes Swartz.
Wired reporter Katie Collins examines the new display technology developed by MIT researchers that automatically corrects for visual defects, allowing individuals to watch TV or use their iPhone without their glasses.
Marcus Wohlsen of Wired reports on ScratchJr, a new iPad application created by MIT researchers to teach kids how to code. “We wanted to make sure young people aren’t just using tablet for browsing and consuming,” says Prof. Mitchel Resnick.
Forbes reporter Jay McGregor writes that researchers at MIT have developed a new vision-correcting display that automatically adjusts for people with visual impairments. “The idea is that the technology will predict how the users’ eyes will distort whatever is on screen and correct it beforehand,” McGregor explains.
“The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has released a new iPad app that aims to help 5-7 year-old children take their first steps in programming,” writes Stuart Dredge for The Guardian. “ScratchJr is a free app based on MIT’s existing Scratch programming language.”
BBC News reports on a new vision-correcting display developed by MIT researchers that automatically corrects to allow individuals with vision problems to use the technology without glasses. The technology operates by altering the light from individual pictures on the display based on a person’s prescription.
Dr. Andrew Lippman of the MIT Media Lab writes for The Boston Globe about the importance of developing policies that allow open and affordable Internet access. Lippman outlines five principles that he argues adhering to will help to achieve this goal.
Bloomberg Businessweek reporter Danielle Muoio writes about the FingerReader, a ring developed by researchers from the MIT Media Lab to help people with visual impairment read. “The ring’s webcam takes pictures of a group of words and then funnels the images into a companion app on a computer, which then reads the text out loud,” Muoio reports.
David Rose of the MIT Media Lab speaks at the Harvard Book Store to discuss his book “Enchanted Objects: Design, Human Desire, and the Internet of Things” in this WGBH video. Future “smart objects” will be developed not only for utility, but for attributes that make them feel “friendly,” says Rose.