UROP
OPENINGS: The
Object-Based Media group at the Media Lab is usually looking for
undergraduates with experience in image processing, graphics programming (especially GPU hackery), RF electronics,
PC board design, optics, or user interfaces. Contact Michael Bove,
vmb (at) media (dot) mit (dot) edu
Current
Research Projects
 Connectibles
The
Connectibles system is a peer-to-peer, serverless social networking
system implemented as a set of tangible, exchangeable tokens. See the video...
 The
"Bar of Soap": Grasp-Based Interfaces for Reconfigurable
Devices
Grasp-based interfaces combine finger-touch pattern sensing with pattern recognition algorithms to provide interfaces that can "read the user's mind." As an example, the
"Bar of Soap" is a hand-held device that can detect the
finger-touch pattern on its surface and determine its desired operational
mode (e.g. camera, phone, remote control) based on how the user
is grasping it. We have also managed to fit the electronics into a baseball that can classify a pitch based on how the user is gripping the ball (which we are using as the input to a video game). See the video...
 Holographic
Video on your PC
Holographic video work previously done in the Spatial Imaging Group
(using computing hardware developed by the Object-Based Media Group)
has now moved to our lab. We are developing electro-optics for a consumer-price holographic video monitor as well as developing real-time rendering methods that can generate diffraction patterns from 3-D models using off-the-shelf GPUs.
Q. Y. J. Smithwick, J. Barabas, D. E. Smalley, and V. M. Bove, Jr., "Real-Time Shader Rendering of Holographic Stereograms," Proc. SPIE Practical Holography XXIII, v. 7233, 2009.
 Collaborating
Input-Output Ecosystems
The
Smart Architectural Surfaces system is one of several platforms
we have developed for exploring group-forming protocols for self-organized
collaborative problem solving by intelligent sensing devices. It's
also a platform we use for experiments in ecosystems of networked
consumer electronic products. See the video...
Read
about smart sensors:
V.
M. Bove, Jr. and J. Mallett, "Collaborative Knowledge Building
by Smart Sensors," BT Technology Journal, 22:4, Oct. 2004.
Read
how SAS tiles (and other devices like phones or PDAs) can figure
out their locations using sound:
B.
C. Dalton and V. M. Bove, Jr., "Audio-Based Self-Localization
for Ubiquitous Sensor Networks," Proc. 118th Audio Engineering
Society Convention, 2005.
Classic
Favorites
 As
featured on Good Morning America, Jay
Leno's
monologue, and in the comic strip Sylvia...
Yes,
we (Gauri, to be specific) were responsible for Clocky, the alarm
clock that hides when the user presses the snooze button.
Read more...
BYOB
(Build Your Own Bag)
BYOB
is a computationally enhanced modular textile system that makes
available a new material from which to construct "smart"
fabric objects (bags, furniture, clothing). The small modular elements
are flexible, networked, input/output capable, and interlock with
other modules in a reconfigurable way. The object built out of the
elements is capable of communicating with people and other objects,
and of responding to its environment. Read
more...
 Personal
Projectors
The
Personal Projection project is looking to add video projection capabilities
to very small devices without adding appreciably to their cost,
form factor, or power consumption. One experiment involved the use
of VCSEL arrays:
V. Michael
Bove, Jr. and Wilfrido Sierra, "Personal Projection, or How
to Put a Large Screen in a Small Device" Proc. SID 2003.
 Isis,
a scripting language for responsive, distributed media applications
(and it's free!)
Named
after the Egyptian goddess of fertility, Isis is tailored in a number
of ways -- both in syntax and in internal operation -- to support
the development of demanding responsive media applications. Isis
is a "lean and mean" programming environment, appropriate
for research and laboratory situations. Isis software libraries
strive to follow a "multilevel" design strategy, consisting
of multiple interoperable layers that each offer a different level
of abstraction of a particular kind of functionality but that also
use the same core language elements as a basis. The small yet complete
syntax fosters collaboration by lessening the burden on novices
while still allowing experienced programmers to take full advantage
of their skills. Isis also provides an efficient mechanism for extending
functionality by accessing software libraries written in other languages.
The Isis Web
site gives a complete manual on the language, and more importantly
it links to many different projects that use Isis.
Isis
is now available for free download under the GNU GPL (though certain
libraries and applications are made available only to our sponsors
and collaborators).
The
application of Isis to personalized television:
Stefan
Agamanolis and V. Michael Bove, Jr., "Viper: A Framework for
Responsive Television," IEEE MultiMedia, 10:3, July-Sept. 2003.
iCom,
an Isis application for linking distributed workspaces
Hypervideo
TV programs prototyped using Isis: V.
Michael Bove, Jr., Jonathan Dakss, Edmond Chalom, and Stefan Agamanolis,
"Hyperlinked Video Research at the MIT Media Laboratory,"
IBM Systems Journal, v. 39, no. 3-4, 2000.
Links
|
V.
Michael Bove, Jr. (group head)
Kristin
Hall (CELab project coordinator and sometime group admin)
Quinn
Smithwick (postdoctoral researcher)
Santiago Alfaro
James
Barabas 
Jared Markowitz (physics au pair)
Dan
Smalley
Tim Wegner (visiting student)
