Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
RoomRender Futuristic Smart Room
RoomRender is an intelligent room system that provides a remarkable degree of control over electronics, appliances and other hardware with verbal commands.
(RoomRender by SGI Japan)
RoomRender uses AmiVoice voice recognition to recognize, analyze and respond to verbal commands. RoomRender also is able to respond to the mood of users. The unique FeelingWall has colored lights that change according to the mood of the people in the room. It interprets emotions based on the intonation and rhythm of voices, adjusting the color and lighting accordingly.
RoomRender lets you control an aroma diffuser, so it also has a fragrance-based response to how you feel. You can walk into the room and announce "I'm tired," and have the room dim the lights, turn off the TV, alter the composition of the lights, turn on some background music and release soothing fragrances.
The system costs about $45,000; SGI Japan, which developed the system, has installed RoomRender in one of its Tokyo meeting rooms earlier this month. It is hoped that the system will find its way into company meeting rooms, hotels, and hospital facilities.
The idea of a smart room has been around for a while. In 1996, a smart room prototype was created in MIT's Media Laboratory. They developed a host of applications, including face recognition, gesture awareness and even some recognition of American Sign Language gestures. The system had an awareness of the number of people in the room and where they congregated.
Another direction was chosen by Carnegie Mellon University students, who created another prototype for meeting rooms, one that would improve interactivity between design teams. Their 2003 Barn design would record and track activity in a meeting room, using RFID tags to record location. Sketches on the room's Thinking Surface would be recorded in a log with participant comments. Participants could also "bookmark" important ideas or moments in the room's record.
Also in 2003, the University of Florida created an "assistive environment" - it's a smart room concept designed particularly for the elderly. It can determine the location of a person in a residence, as well as monitor for spills.
Science fiction fans will recall the wonderful "smart houses" of Ray Bradbury's short stories; take a look at the entry for Happylife Home from his 1951 book of short stories The Illustrated Man.
"They walked down the hall of their soundproofed Happylife Home, which had cost them thirty thousand dollars installed, this house which clothed and fed and rocked them to sleep and played and sang and was good to them." (More)
For an organic solution to making your house feel your emotions, take a look at the genetically engineered float-home from Frank Herbert's 1969 novel Whipping Star.
Find out more about RoomRender, MIT's smart room, the UF assistive environment and CMU's Barn. See also the Smart Home With Cyber Crumbs.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 12/10/2006)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )
Related News Stories - (" Computer ")
ElectionSim: China's 'Ender's Game' Battle Sim, Or Lem's 'Kingdom In A Box'?
'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.' - Orson Scott Card, 1985.
Muxcard Redditor's DIY Credit Card-Sized Computer
It's a computer, but just barely.
Cortex 1 - Today A Warehouse, Tomorrow A Calculator Planet
'There were cubic miles of it, and it glistened like a silvery Christmas tree...' - Clifford Simak, 1949.
Is Agentic AI The Wrong Kind Of Smartness?
'It’s smart enough to go wrong in very complicated ways, but not smart enough to help us find out what’s wrong.' - Isaac Asimov, 1975.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
You Will Eat The Cookies Made From Plastic...
'Our planes are going to start bringing in bales of discarded plastics...'
It's A Giant Robot! You Reporters Have Been Warned!
'... completely forgetting the ship at sight of the awesome figure and great head of the giant Gaut...'
Birds Learn To Sing Pictures ala Frank Herbert's Distrans
'We will fight in the time of fighting.'
ElectionSim: China's 'Ender's Game' Battle Sim, Or Lem's 'Kingdom In A Box'?
'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.'
Tactile Skin Supplier Map
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
Flock Stymied By 'Adversarial Fashion'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
Orb Nomad Zero-Emission Electric Aircraft
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
ICE Buys Shock Gloves Like Batman's
What else is the Caped Crusader using?
Factories In The Sky Will Surpass Those Of Earth
'The thirty-odd miles of The Factory’s circumference...'
Sleeper Drones Lie in Wait
'Wandering mines, you took them out on the edge of the desert, set them down and activated them.'
Warfare Goes Underground In Ukraine
'Once in the very first weeks of the war, before everyone had been evacuated from the surface...'
Robot Bees 3D Printed By Festo
'At first I was struck by the large size of these bees..'
3D Printed Organs From Space
'For a while your colonists will have to come up to the [orbital] Hospital...'
DIY Robot Scorpion Crushes It
'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.'
How To Settle An Argument Between Two Robots
'Henry... assumed the curious absent look of a robot talking on the TBR circuits.'
The Wind Phone Calls Those Who Have Passed On
'Only I heard that!'
