TED 2008, the annual Technology, Entertainment and Design Conference, was held this March in Monterey California. Among the most exciting talks given was by Johnny Lee, who displayed two incredible uses of the Wiimote controller from the Nintendo Wii. Using the infrared camera at the front of the controller, a projector and an infrared pointer pen, he has made a virtual whiteboard that can be manipulated at more than one place at a time.
This interactive whiteboard is a fraction of the cost of traditional ones. Using sunglasses that emit two infrared dots that show where the glasses are looking Lee also used the Wiimote to make a flat TV screen look truly 3D to the wearer of the sunglasses. Watch and be amazed.
[via Joystiq, video by TED]
Ever since finding a superb Spore video by Will Wright on TED.com, I’ve been keeping an eye on the website for new videos which are released on a regular basis. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design and is an annual conference in which respected thinkers from all aspects of the world come to give fascinating speeches about their pet subjects. Only recently has the website started giving access to these speeches to anyone who didn’t attend the conference.
As well as Will Wright’s speech (and if you haven’t watched at least one presentation about the forthcoming groundbreaking game, you should), there’s a recent video by bioengineer Hod Lipson about his work on small robots which can learn and self-replicate. The website and video player is cleverly designed with an ingenious overlay on the bottom of the video telling you about the subsections of the talk, how long they go on for and what the subtopics are. Other enjoyable talks include speakers like Al Gore on global warming, Carolyn Porco on flying to Saturn with Cassini, James Kunstler’s engaging criticism of the tragedy of suburbia and Aubrey de Grey’s controversial belief that we can defeat ageing. That’s barely scratching the surface – I could spend weeks watching nothing but TED talks and not get bored. Have a browse and find the ones that engage you.
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