In an interesting demonstration at TED 2009 in Long Beach, MIT researcher Pattie Maes demonstrated a neat gadget that expands a person’s view of everyday objects beyond personal sensory perception to include relevant data from other sources on the web.  Built from a few hundred dollars worth of off-the-shelf components, the wearable prototype device responds to the user’s hand gestures to provide enhanced contextual information which is projected onto a nearby surface.  Wired has more details on the demo here, and Fast Company has more info with some pictures of the demo here.

It’s interesting to contemplate the ramifications of instant, organic access to vast amounts of contextual information during everyday personal interactions.  The accumulation and availability of pertinent data is a big part of what enhances successful business interactions, raising their value to both participants far beyond simple transactions.

And the user interface has some fascinating potential as well.

Roger Farnsworth