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
 |
Responsive Mirror, Mirror On The Wall
PARC's Responsive Mirror is a prototype device that is intended to augment the usual clothing recommendation and exploration systems already in use (like your friends, for instance). The Responsive Mirror presents the user with new choices that are "similar" and "different" - part of the experiment is to see just how people use these terms in fashion.
A prototype device was recently demonstrated. Lisa Katayama writes in a boingboing article:
Take a look at a brief video clip of her experience with the Palo Alto Research Center's Responsive Mirror:
By streaming video taken by the camera through their spatially oriented machine learning software, PARC researchers have figured out how to give people like me a real-time interactive comparison shopping experience. The responsive mirror system, which comes in both a desktop and full-length version, displays previously worn outfits on a second "mirror" — the playback of a movie taken by a webcam on the ceiling that locates you spatially within the frame and then finds the same angled shot from the previous clip.
(PARC Responsive Mirror video)
Lisa sees an early reference to this kind of device in a 1990's movie:
The idea of using digital images to compare outfits, for me at least, dates back to 1995, when the movie Clueless came out. In the opening scene, Cher (Alicia Silverstone) is picking out an outfit to wear to school. "Actually, my life is way normal for a teenage girl," she says. "I wake up, I brush my teeth, and I pick out my school clothes!" The camera then zooms in on an old school computer monitor showing a program that helps her pick out an outfit. Cher scrolls through all the items in her closet, picks a few possible outfits, and then the software juxtaposes the best look onto a photograph of herself.
I think I can put it back a few more decades. In his classic 1965 novel Bill the Galactic Hero, Harry Harrison writes about a raw recruit who is convinced to sign up when presented with "pictures" of himself in uniforms of increasing rank:
Bill's eyes followed the thick finger as it pointed to the colour plate in the book where a miracle of misapplied engineering caused his own face to appear on the illustrated figures dressed in trooper red. The sergeant flipped the pages, and on each page the uniform was a little more gaudy, the rank higher. The last one was that of a grand admiral, and Bill blinked at his own face under the plumed helmet, now with a touch of crow's feet around the eyes and sporting a handsome grey-shot mustache, but still undeniably his own.
(Read more about Harrison's personalized fashion display)
If you stretch the idea just a bit, sf fans can go back even further. Take a look at the animated "fashion plates" from When the Sleeper Wakes, an 1899 story by H.G. Wells.
Via boingboing gadgets.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 7/1/2009)
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 ( 2 )
Related News Stories - (" Display ")
DOTPad Braille Device Offers Live Access
Amazing tactile display.
Transparent MicroLED Screen From Samsung
Has Samsung nailed the Look of Things To Come?
Augmented Reality Book Covers Reveal The Inner Book
'The E-paper holograms leaped from lurid covers...' - Greg Bear, 2003.
TCL CSOT 17-Inch Printed OLED Scrolling Display
'..a wide sheet of clear material suddenly flared with light and swirling colour.' - EC Tubb, 1958.
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
Mechazilla Arms Catch A Falling Starship, But Check Out SF Landing-ARMS
'...the rocket’s landing-arms automatically unfolded.'
A System To Defeat AI Face Recognition
'...points and patches of light... sliding all over their faces in a programmed manner that had been designed to foil facial recognition systems.'
Robot Hand Separate From Robot
'The crawling, exploring object was V-Stephen's surgeon-hand...'
Hybrid Wind Solar Devices
'...the combined Wind-Suncatcher, like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.'
Is Optimus Autonomous Or Teleoperated?
'I went to the control room where the three other men were manipulating their mechanical men.'
Robot Masseuse Rubs People The Right Way
'The automatic massager began to fumble gently...'
Solar-Powered Space Trains On The Moon
'The low-slung monorail car, straddling its single track, bored through the shadows on a slowly rising course.'
Drone Deliveries Instead Of Waiters In Restaurants?
'It was a smooth ovoid floating a few inches from the floor...'
Optimus Robot Can Charge Itself
'... he thrust in his charging arm to replenish his store of energy.'
Skip Movewear Arc'teryx AI Pants
'...the terrible Jovian gravity that made each movement an effort.'
'Robovan' Name Already Taken - Elon, Try These
There are alternative names that are probably in the public domain by now.
How Old Are Tesla Designs?
You be the judge.
Is Your Autonomous Tractor Safe?
'The field-minder finished turning the top-soil of a two-thousand-acre field.'
Smart TVs Are Listening!
'You had to live -- did live, from habit that became instinct -- in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard...'
Police Drones In China Would Like To Have A Word With You
''OVERRIDE,' the City Fathers said suddenly, without being asked anything at all.'
Oh Great (Part 2), Fence-Climbing Robots
Please, no stingers.
