Just a few weeks ago I was talking about “The age of speed” and how technology evolves so quickly in this century. I was talking about Microsoft Surface and being one step closer to teleportation. But technology evolves a lot faster than we can imagine.

A group of students from MIT Media Lab in Long Beach California, transformed the Internet into a ‘Sixth Human Sense’. They developed a wearable computing system which can turn any surface into an interactive display screen. The system relies on a webcam as an input device and a small projector with a mirror as the output device.

Here are only some of the functionalities of their system:

• Creating a frame by using your fingers tells the camera to take a photo.
• You can project the photos that you took on any surface and use your fingers to browse through them, rearrange them or resize them.
• You can browse through menus.
• You can search locations on a map.
• You can draw on a wall just by using your fingers.
• You can even call your friends by dialing their number on the palm of your hand.
• On the way to the airport you could check if your flight is delayed or not.
• You could know the time just by drawing a watch on your wrist.
• You could project information about any person you meet.
• And even watch a video of the news that interest you in the newspaper.

If you want to find out more and see how the system works, here are two videos that show its functionality:

Students transform the Internet into ‘The Sixth Human Sense’ – Video1

Students transform the Internet into ‘The Sixth Human Sense’ – Video2

I don’t believe this is the first time we have referenced the excellent blog, Designing Better Libraries. In this article (PDF, 1.13MB), Steven J. Bell pulls together a nice primer on the design thinking process and explores how it can be applied to designing better libraries. How do libraries help users accomplish their work? How do we understand the problem before jumping to solutions? Design thinking helps librarians focus on facilitating research and creating passionate users instead of concentrating on the commodity of information.

At the Carnegie Public Library, “librarians and library staff devote more of their time to more high-value, high-reward efforts. Changed perceptions have attracted new customers who would have otherwise avoided the library. Existing customers find it easier to accomplish their goals and, along the way, discover new things that they might have otherwise missed.”

Additional reading and watching:

MAYA Design: Carnegie Public Library
TED Talk: Joshua Prince-Ramus: Designing the Seattle Central Library

My favourite TED Talk used to be Ken Robinson talking about creativity and education. That top spot has now been replaced by William McDonough relating his philosophies of cradle to cradle design. With a great sense of humour, he designs a realistic future where all products become biological or technical nutrients and architecture creates buildings that make more energy than they need and purify their own water.

Regardless of whether you are a designer or not, these two videos are worth 40 minutes of your time if you are a human being.

Why observe? Because people will do things they never will tell you. This is what we preach in our user centred design workshops. Take this video for example, shot at our regional airport. Very few, if any passengers, would actually lodge a complaint about these luggage carts, but clearly this is not a good user experience.

[QUICKTIME http://www.designinnovation.ie/blog/wp-content/uploads/movies/cart.mov 320 256]

My favorite detail is when the woman reaches out with her foot for leverage and finds no bar. It was probably removed for safety so people wouldn’t ride the carts.

You need to get out and observe users in the act of interacting with your product or service if you want to achieve design innovation.