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 ")
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.
Looking Glass Display Good Enough For Science Fiction, Fantasy
'The figure seemed to be swimming toward the surface.' - Roger Zelazny, 1981.
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
Vast Apartment Living Will Get Even More Vast
'What is your population', I asked. 'About eighty millions.'
NASA Wants Self-Driving Or Remote-Controlled Vehicles For Lunar Astronauts
'THE autobus turned silently down the wide street of Hydropole. Robot-guided, insulated from noise and cold...'
Elon Musk Says Robotaxis Will Be Ready This August, 2024
'The car had no steering wheel, and no one drove!'
Moonwalkers AI-Controlled Electric Shoes
Now that's power walking that Hugo Gernsback would have approved.
Steve Jobs: 'Capture The Next Aristotle - With AI'
'It was disturbing to think of the Flatline as a construct...'
No Tips! Robotic Food Delivery In Phoenix
'...he rewired the delivery robot so that it would serve him midnight snacks.'
Electric Catamaran 'Explorer Eco 40m' Has 'Solar Skin'
'On went the electric-yacht faster and still faster.'
Orbital Mechanics, The Liftoff, The Turnover, The Retrograde Burn
'...the huge vessel had spun, with a sickening lurch, through a complete half-circle, the instant the power was reversed.'
Harvest Power From Tears And Blinking With Smart Contact Lens
'...he realized that it was not quite a clear lens. Speckles of colored brightness swirled and gathered in it.'
Europa Clipper Plate Carries A Special Message
'...a universal cryptogram — yet it is one which can be interpreted by any intelligent creature on any planet in the Solar System!'
Micro-Robots Are Smallest, Fully Functional
'With a whir, the Scarab shot from the concealing shadows of the corner where it had hidden itself.'
AI Enhances Images Your Brain Sees
'I could have sworn the psychomat showed pictures almost as sharp and detailed as reality itself'
Illustrating Classic Heinlein With AI
'Stasis, cold sleep, hibernation, hypothermia, reduced metabolism, call it what you will - the logistics-medicine research teams had found a way to stack people like cordwood and use them when needed.'
Deflector Plasma Screen For Drones ala Star Wars
'If the enemy persists in attacking or even intensifies their power, the density of the plasma in space will suddenly increase, causing it to reflect most of the incoming energy like a mirror.'
DIY Robotic Hand Made After Loss Of Fingers
'I made them... with the fine work of the watchmaker...'
Cheap Drunk Driver Detection From UofM
"Look, I can drive... Start, darn it!"
