Will we all have a “SixthSense”?
I have spoken about the impact of multi-touch computer screens on the catalogue display, including the work of Jeff Han and Microsoft Surface. Now Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry from MIT unveil the latest development, SixthSense.
‘SixthSense’ is a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information.
Wolfram Alpha is coming…
Do you ever just want to ask factual questions of your favorite search engine and have it compute answers for you? Well soon you might be able to do just that.
Stephen Wolfram received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Caltech in 1979 when he was 20 and in 1988 created computational software that has become the standard in its field, and went on to focus on cellular automata and complex systems.
Hypatia, old school librarian
Agora is a movie directed by Alejandro Amenábar about Hypatia, (who may or may not have been) a librarian in the Great Library of Alexandria. Judging by the final few seconds of the trailer, and what we know about her life, I’m guessing this film does not have a happy ending…
Economy 0, Libraries 1 (for now…)
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
As the economy enters the ninth circle of hell libraries are, according to the world’s media, experiencing a glorious rebirth.
Hamilton Spectator (Ontario)
The Standard (Ontario)
York Region (Ontario)
Sante Fe (New Mexico)
Frederick News Post (Maryland)
Eagle Tribune (Massachusetts)
Suwannee Democrat (Florida)
As this trope plays out in the media, other stories present a less hopeful future…
Library books fall by two million a year amid warnings of cuts and closures
Library cuts ‘could last a decade’
Journal Changes at Tucker Library Due to Global Economic Downturn (I find the idea of a medical library with no journals slightly disturbing)
Microsoft Surface and social computing
In an earlier post I discussed the possible impact of multi-touch computer screens on the catalogue display. Microsoft has just demonstrated the latest version of their software at the South by SouthWest Festival. While it is still in the development stage, it doesn`t stop us from imagining the possibilities.
According to the original story on the BBC
Devices like the Surface, as well as Apple’s iPhone, are at the vanguard of a shift in how we interact with computers.
“Everything is moving to touch and multi-touch so you had better jump on that bandwagon,” Mr Klimczak told the conference of web developers.
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