TED2013
Jinha Lee: Reach into the computer and grab a pixel
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The border between our physical world and the digital information surrounding us has been getting thinner and thinner. Designer and engineer Jinha Lee wants to dissolve it altogether. As he demonstrates in this short, gasp-inducing talk, his ideas include a pen that penetrates into a screen to draw 3D models and SpaceTop, a computer desktop prototype that lets you reach through the screen to manipulate digital objects.
Jinha Lee - Interaction designer, entrepreneur
Jinha Lee wants to weave digital computing into the flow of our physical reality. Full bio
Jinha Lee wants to weave digital computing into the flow of our physical reality. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:12
Throughout the history of computers
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we've been striving to shorten the gap between us
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and digital information,
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the gap between our physical world
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and the world in the screen
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where our imagination can go wild.
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And this gap has become shorter,
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shorter, and even shorter,
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and now this gap is shortened down
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to less than a millimeter,
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the thickness of a touch-screen glass,
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and the power of computing
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has become accessible to everyone.
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But I wondered, what if there could be no boundary at all?
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I started to imagine what this would look like.
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First, I created this tool
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which penetrates into the digital space,
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so when you press it hard on the screen,
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it transfers its physical body into pixels.
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Designers can materialize their ideas
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directly in 3D,
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and surgeons can practice on virtual organs
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underneath the screen.
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So with this tool, this boundary has been broken.
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But our two hands still remain outside the screen.
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How can you reach inside and interact
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with the digital information
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using the full dexterity of our hands?
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At Microsoft Applied Sciences,
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along with my mentor Cati Boulanger,
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I redesigned the computer
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and turned a little space above the keyboard
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into a digital workspace.
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By combining a transparent display and depth cameras
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for sensing your fingers and face,
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now you can lift up your hands from the keyboard
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and reach inside this 3D space
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and grab pixels with your bare hands.
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(Applause)
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Because windows and files have a position in the real space,
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selecting them is as easy as grabbing a book off your shelf.
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Then you can flip through this book
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while highlighting the lines, words
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on the virtual touch pad below each floating window.
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Architects can stretch or rotate the models
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with their two hands directly.
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So in these examples,
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we are reaching into the digital world.
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But how about reversing its role
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and having the digital information reach us instead?
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I'm sure many of us have had the experience
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of buying and returning items online.
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But now you don't have to worry about it.
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What I got here is an online augmented fitting room.
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This is a view that you get from
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head-mounted or see-through display
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when the system understands the geometry of your body.
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Taking this idea further, I started to think,
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instead of just seeing these pixels in our space,
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how can we make it physical
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so that we can touch and feel it?
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What would such a future look like?
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At MIT Media Lab, along with my advisor Hiroshi Ishii
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and my collaborator Rehmi Post,
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we created this one physical pixel.
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Well, in this case, this spherical magnet
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acts like a 3D pixel in our space,
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which means that both computers and people
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can move this object to anywhere
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within this little 3D space.
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What we did was essentially canceling gravity
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and controlling the movement by combining
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magnetic levitation and mechanical actuation
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and sensing technologies.
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And by digitally programming the object,
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we are liberating the object from constraints
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of time and space, which means that now,
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human motions can be recorded and played back
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and left permanently in the physical world.
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So choreography can be taught physically over distance
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and Michael Jordan's famous shooting can be replicated
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over and over as a physical reality.
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Students can use this as a tool
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to learn about the complex concepts
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such as planetary motion, physics,
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and unlike computer screens or textbooks,
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this is a real, tangible experience
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that you can touch and feel, and it's very powerful.
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And what's more exciting
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than just turning what's currently in the computer physical
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is to start imagining how programming the world
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will alter even our daily physical activities.
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(Laughter)
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As you can see, the digital information
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will not just show us something
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but it will start directly acting upon us
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as a part of our physical surroundings
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without disconnecting ourselves from our world.
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Today, we started by talking about the boundary,
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but if we remove this boundary,
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the only boundary left is our imagination.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jinha Lee - Interaction designer, entrepreneurJinha Lee wants to weave digital computing into the flow of our physical reality.
Why you should listen
Jinha Lee is a Korean designer, inventor and entrepreneur. He is co-founder and chief product officer of Spatial, a company that's building a future where you can use your physical environment as a digital canvas.
Before founding Spatial, Lee developed pioneering 3D user interfaces at MIT and Microsoft, which brought him to the TED stage in 2013. An advocate for inclusive design, he co-designed the Bradley Timepiece, an innovative tactile wristwatch for the blind. At Samsung, he founded the Interactive Visualization Lab and led the redesign of Samsung smart TVs, turning them into a platform for artistic data visualization and collaboration. Lee was named one of the "35 innovators under 35" by the MIT Technology Review, was named one of the "32 greatest designers" by Fast Company and was named one of the "Young Global Leaders" by the World Economic Forum.
Jinha Lee | Speaker | TED.com