full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Jinha Lee: Reach into the computer and grab a pixel


Unscramble the Blue Letters


Throughout the history of computers we've been striving to shorten the gap between us and digital information, the gap between our physical world and the world in the screen where our imagination can go wild. And this gap has become shorter, sohertr, and even shorter, and now this gap is shortened down to less than a millimeter, the thickness of a touch-screen glass, and the power of computing has become aelsiscbce to everyone. But I weerondd, what if there could be no boundary at all? I started to iimgane what this would look like. First, I created this tool which penetrates into the digital space, so when you press it hard on the screen, it transfers its physical body into pixels. deerinsgs can materialize their ideas directly in 3D, and surgeons can practice on virtual organs underneath the secren. So with this tool, this boundary has been broken. But our two hands still remain outside the screen. How can you reach inside and interact with the digital information using the full dexterity of our hadns? At Microsoft Applied Sciences, along with my mentor Cati Boulanger, I redesigned the computer and turned a little space above the keyboard into a digital workspace. By cbinonmig a tnnrerapsat display and dpeth cameras for sensing your fingers and face, now you can lift up your hands from the kobyraed and reach inside this 3D space and grab plxies with your bare hands. (Applause) Because windows and files have a position in the real space, selecting them is as easy as gibnbrag a book off your shelf. Then you can flip through this book while highlighting the lines, words on the virtual touch pad below each floating window. Architects can stretch or rotate the models with their two hands directly. So in these examples, we are reaching into the digital world. But how about rreisveng its role and having the digital iirnmtfoaon reach us instead? I'm sure many of us have had the eeeinpcrxe of buying and rennitrug items oninle. But now you don't have to wrroy about it. What I got here is an online augmented fitting room. This is a view that you get from head-mounted or see-through display when the system understands the geometry of your body. Taking this idea further, I started to think, instead of just seeing these pixels in our space, how can we make it physical so that we can tucoh and feel it? What would such a future look like? At MIT Media Lab, along with my advisor Hiroshi Ishii and my cotoloraalbr Rehmi Post, we creetad this one physical pxeil. Well, in this case, this spherical magnet acts like a 3D pixel in our space, which means that both cptruomes and people can move this object to anywhere within this little 3D space. What we did was eislntsleay canceling gravity and controlling the movement by combining magnetic levitation and mechanical actuation and sensing technologies. And by digitally proimnagmrg the object, we are liberating the oebjct from cntintroass of time and space, which means that now, haumn mnotios can be recorded and played back and left permanently in the physical world. So choreography can be taught physically over distance and Michael Jordan's fuamos shooting can be replicated over and over as a physical reality. Students can use this as a tool to learn about the cplomex concepts such as planetary motion, physics, and unlike computer screens or ttexoobks, this is a real, tangible experience that you can touch and feel, and it's very powerful. And what's more exciting than just turning what's currently in the computer phacyisl is to start imagining how programming the world will alter even our dliay physical activities. (Laughter) As you can see, the diatigl information will not just show us something but it will start directly aictng upon us as a part of our physical surroundings without disconnecting ourselves from our world. Today, we started by tlainkg about the boundary, but if we remove this bnrdaouy, the only boundary left is our imagination. Thank you. (alausppe)

Open Cloze


Throughout the history of computers we've been striving to shorten the gap between us and digital information, the gap between our physical world and the world in the screen where our imagination can go wild. And this gap has become shorter, _______, and even shorter, and now this gap is shortened down to less than a millimeter, the thickness of a touch-screen glass, and the power of computing has become __________ to everyone. But I ________, what if there could be no boundary at all? I started to _______ what this would look like. First, I created this tool which penetrates into the digital space, so when you press it hard on the screen, it transfers its physical body into pixels. _________ can materialize their ideas directly in 3D, and surgeons can practice on virtual organs underneath the ______. So with this tool, this boundary has been broken. But our two hands still remain outside the screen. How can you reach inside and interact with the digital information using the full dexterity of our _____? At Microsoft Applied Sciences, along with my mentor Cati Boulanger, I redesigned the computer and turned a little space above the keyboard into a digital workspace. By _________ a ___________ display and _____ cameras for sensing your fingers and face, now you can lift up your hands from the ________ and reach inside this 3D space and grab ______ with your bare hands. (Applause) Because windows and files have a position in the real space, selecting them is as easy as ________ a book off your shelf. Then you can flip through this book while highlighting the lines, words on the virtual touch pad below each floating window. Architects can stretch or rotate the models with their two hands directly. So in these examples, we are reaching into the digital world. But how about _________ its role and having the digital ___________ reach us instead? I'm sure many of us have had the __________ of buying and _________ items ______. But now you don't have to _____ about it. What I got here is an online augmented fitting room. This is a view that you get from head-mounted or see-through display when the system understands the geometry of your body. Taking this idea further, I started to think, instead of just seeing these pixels in our space, how can we make it physical so that we can _____ and feel it? What would such a future look like? At MIT Media Lab, along with my advisor Hiroshi Ishii and my ____________ Rehmi Post, we _______ this one physical _____. Well, in this case, this spherical magnet acts like a 3D pixel in our space, which means that both _________ and people can move this object to anywhere within this little 3D space. What we did was ___________ canceling gravity and controlling the movement by combining magnetic levitation and mechanical actuation and sensing technologies. And by digitally ___________ the object, we are liberating the ______ from ___________ of time and space, which means that now, _____ _______ can be recorded and played back and left permanently in the physical world. So choreography can be taught physically over distance and Michael Jordan's ______ shooting can be replicated over and over as a physical reality. Students can use this as a tool to learn about the _______ concepts such as planetary motion, physics, and unlike computer screens or _________, this is a real, tangible experience that you can touch and feel, and it's very powerful. And what's more exciting than just turning what's currently in the computer ________ is to start imagining how programming the world will alter even our _____ physical activities. (Laughter) As you can see, the _______ information will not just show us something but it will start directly ______ upon us as a part of our physical surroundings without disconnecting ourselves from our world. Today, we started by _______ about the boundary, but if we remove this ________, the only boundary left is our imagination. Thank you. (________)

Solution


  1. essentially
  2. touch
  3. object
  4. famous
  5. screen
  6. collaborator
  7. designers
  8. reversing
  9. experience
  10. physical
  11. depth
  12. motions
  13. daily
  14. online
  15. grabbing
  16. worry
  17. pixels
  18. digital
  19. acting
  20. boundary
  21. keyboard
  22. information
  23. human
  24. talking
  25. shorter
  26. complex
  27. wondered
  28. transparent
  29. pixel
  30. accessible
  31. constraints
  32. hands
  33. returning
  34. textbooks
  35. imagine
  36. created
  37. combining
  38. computers
  39. applause
  40. programming

Original Text


Throughout the history of computers we've been striving to shorten the gap between us and digital information, the gap between our physical world and the world in the screen where our imagination can go wild. And this gap has become shorter, shorter, and even shorter, and now this gap is shortened down to less than a millimeter, the thickness of a touch-screen glass, and the power of computing has become accessible to everyone. But I wondered, what if there could be no boundary at all? I started to imagine what this would look like. First, I created this tool which penetrates into the digital space, so when you press it hard on the screen, it transfers its physical body into pixels. Designers can materialize their ideas directly in 3D, and surgeons can practice on virtual organs underneath the screen. So with this tool, this boundary has been broken. But our two hands still remain outside the screen. How can you reach inside and interact with the digital information using the full dexterity of our hands? At Microsoft Applied Sciences, along with my mentor Cati Boulanger, I redesigned the computer and turned a little space above the keyboard into a digital workspace. By combining a transparent display and depth cameras for sensing your fingers and face, now you can lift up your hands from the keyboard and reach inside this 3D space and grab pixels with your bare hands. (Applause) Because windows and files have a position in the real space, selecting them is as easy as grabbing a book off your shelf. Then you can flip through this book while highlighting the lines, words on the virtual touch pad below each floating window. Architects can stretch or rotate the models with their two hands directly. So in these examples, we are reaching into the digital world. But how about reversing its role and having the digital information reach us instead? I'm sure many of us have had the experience of buying and returning items online. But now you don't have to worry about it. What I got here is an online augmented fitting room. This is a view that you get from head-mounted or see-through display when the system understands the geometry of your body. Taking this idea further, I started to think, instead of just seeing these pixels in our space, how can we make it physical so that we can touch and feel it? What would such a future look like? At MIT Media Lab, along with my advisor Hiroshi Ishii and my collaborator Rehmi Post, we created this one physical pixel. Well, in this case, this spherical magnet acts like a 3D pixel in our space, which means that both computers and people can move this object to anywhere within this little 3D space. What we did was essentially canceling gravity and controlling the movement by combining magnetic levitation and mechanical actuation and sensing technologies. And by digitally programming the object, we are liberating the object from constraints of time and space, which means that now, human motions can be recorded and played back and left permanently in the physical world. So choreography can be taught physically over distance and Michael Jordan's famous shooting can be replicated over and over as a physical reality. Students can use this as a tool to learn about the complex concepts such as planetary motion, physics, and unlike computer screens or textbooks, this is a real, tangible experience that you can touch and feel, and it's very powerful. And what's more exciting than just turning what's currently in the computer physical is to start imagining how programming the world will alter even our daily physical activities. (Laughter) As you can see, the digital information will not just show us something but it will start directly acting upon us as a part of our physical surroundings without disconnecting ourselves from our world. Today, we started by talking about the boundary, but if we remove this boundary, the only boundary left is our imagination. Thank you. (Applause)

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
digital information 3
physical world 2



Important Words


  1. accessible
  2. acting
  3. activities
  4. acts
  5. actuation
  6. advisor
  7. alter
  8. applause
  9. applied
  10. architects
  11. augmented
  12. bare
  13. body
  14. book
  15. boulanger
  16. boundary
  17. broken
  18. buying
  19. cameras
  20. canceling
  21. case
  22. cati
  23. choreography
  24. collaborator
  25. combining
  26. complex
  27. computer
  28. computers
  29. computing
  30. concepts
  31. constraints
  32. controlling
  33. created
  34. daily
  35. depth
  36. designers
  37. dexterity
  38. digital
  39. digitally
  40. disconnecting
  41. display
  42. distance
  43. easy
  44. essentially
  45. examples
  46. exciting
  47. experience
  48. face
  49. famous
  50. feel
  51. files
  52. fingers
  53. fitting
  54. flip
  55. floating
  56. full
  57. future
  58. gap
  59. geometry
  60. glass
  61. grab
  62. grabbing
  63. gravity
  64. hands
  65. hard
  66. highlighting
  67. hiroshi
  68. history
  69. human
  70. idea
  71. ideas
  72. imagination
  73. imagine
  74. imagining
  75. information
  76. interact
  77. ishii
  78. items
  79. keyboard
  80. lab
  81. laughter
  82. learn
  83. left
  84. levitation
  85. liberating
  86. lift
  87. lines
  88. magnet
  89. magnetic
  90. materialize
  91. means
  92. mechanical
  93. media
  94. mentor
  95. michael
  96. microsoft
  97. millimeter
  98. mit
  99. models
  100. motion
  101. motions
  102. move
  103. movement
  104. object
  105. online
  106. organs
  107. pad
  108. part
  109. penetrates
  110. people
  111. permanently
  112. physical
  113. physically
  114. physics
  115. pixel
  116. pixels
  117. planetary
  118. played
  119. position
  120. post
  121. power
  122. powerful
  123. practice
  124. press
  125. programming
  126. reach
  127. reaching
  128. real
  129. reality
  130. recorded
  131. redesigned
  132. rehmi
  133. remain
  134. remove
  135. replicated
  136. returning
  137. reversing
  138. role
  139. room
  140. rotate
  141. sciences
  142. screen
  143. screens
  144. selecting
  145. sensing
  146. shelf
  147. shooting
  148. shorten
  149. shortened
  150. shorter
  151. show
  152. space
  153. spherical
  154. start
  155. started
  156. stretch
  157. striving
  158. students
  159. surgeons
  160. surroundings
  161. system
  162. talking
  163. tangible
  164. taught
  165. technologies
  166. textbooks
  167. thickness
  168. time
  169. today
  170. tool
  171. touch
  172. transfers
  173. transparent
  174. turned
  175. turning
  176. understands
  177. view
  178. virtual
  179. wild
  180. window
  181. windows
  182. wondered
  183. words
  184. workspace
  185. world
  186. worry