Nextiles, an MIT startup founded by alumnus George Sun, is developing smart threads, reports John Koetsier for Forbes. “We’re literally trying to sew the same kind of highway of data streams that you can normally find in a computer chip, but do that in clothing,” says Sun.
MIT researchers have developed a self-assembling phone, reports Heather Kelly for CNN. “A phone that assembles itself could help manufacturers cut down on costs, or open the door for more experimental phone designs,” writes Kelly.
Hae Young Yoo writes for The Boston Globe that Ori, a spinoff out of the MIT Media Lab’s CityHome research project, “is creating furniture for urban spaces -- not just smaller pieces, but smarter ones, equipped with robotics that move on demand.”
Wired reporter Margaret Rhodes writes that Media Lab spinoff Ori is developing transformable furniture to help maximize living spaces. “With the push of a button—or, with future versions of the software, at the sound of a voice or wave of a hand—pieces of Ori furniture will slide up, down, or over, reconfiguring spaces in mere moments.”
Liz Stinson writes for Wired about THAW, a project out of the MIT Media Lab that allows screens on smart devices to interact with one another. "We don’t really think of it as a product,” says Media Lab student Phillip Schoessler. “We’ve really just touched the surface of the applications.”
Boston Globe reporter Scott Kirsner writes about David Rose’s new book “Enchanted Objects: Design, Human Desire and the Internet of Things” and his vision for the future. Rose believes that as the cost of building smart devices drops, there will be an increase in their production and application to all sorts of objects.
Kate Tuttle of The Boston Globe reviews “Enchanted Objects: Design, Human Desire, and the Internet of Things,” by David Rose of the MIT Media Lab. The book focuses on how we will interact with technology in the future. “As inventors we should take a lesson from the magicians of the world,” says Rose.
“The high-tech benches were invented by MIT Media Lab spinoff Changing Environments,” writes Meghan Irons of The Boston Globe about new solar-powered “smart benches” coming to Boston. “Your cellphone doesn't just make phone calls, why should our benches just be seats?” Boston Mayor Marty Walsh says of the project.
Liz Stinson of Wired reports on Transform, a piece of shape-shifting furniture built by the Tangible Media Group at the MIT Media Lab that metamorphoses based on the motion and emotion of the people around it. Transform is comprised of 1,152 plastic pins controlled by microprocessors that sit underneath.