Syllabus

Spring 2014 Media Arts and Sciences Course
MAS S62 (H) Special Topics: STAR: Shared Tangible Augmented Reality
Shaping Malleable Reality through Bits, Atoms and the Senses

When: Thursday 10am-12pm
Start Date: Feb. 6th (Thu)

Where: E14-525 (Nagashima Conference Room)
Units: H-level 12 units (0-12-0)

Co-instructors: Prof. Ken Perlin (NYU) & Prof. Hiroshi Ishii (MIT Media Lab, Tangible Media Group)
TAs: Xiao Xiao, Felix Heibeck, Basheer Tome, Philipp Schoessler

This course explores possible visions of the future where Bits, Atoms, and the human are seamlessly coupled to create a shared, tangible augmented reality, or “Malleable Reality”, that people can share using all their senses. We review (1) existing visions, (2) techniques to hack human senses, (3) enabling VR/AR/TUI technologies, (4) new application scenarios (e.g. collaborative design, learning), and (5) social & cultural implications of malleable reality.

This is a project-based course open to approximately 24 students who will work in small groups of 3-4 to explore aspects of malleable reality through two projects. In the first project you will create a video that shows a vision of a possible future. For this project, start with a cultural question and a set of reasonable assumptions about future capabilities. Your video can be hopeful, cautionary, educational, poignant or comical. The key goal is to illuminate, in a thought provoking way, societal issues around the possibilities created by future shared augmented and malleable realities. In the second (final) project you will implement a prototype of your vision, using whatever technologies are available to you in 2014, create a working prototype that can be used to explore and better understand some of the issues raised by your vision of future interactions.

Guest Lectures (TBN)

• Jaron Lanier (06/03)
• Bret Victor

Projects

• 1st (Mid-Term) Project
  • Visions of future interactions (vision video): For this project, start with a cultural question and a set of reasonable assumptions about future capabilities. Your video can be hopeful, cautionary, educational, poignant or comical. The key goal is to illuminate, in a thought provoking way, societal issues around the possibilities created by future shared augmented and malleable realities.
• 2nd (Final) Project
  • Prototype of your vision (implement something): Using whatever technologies are available to you in 2014, create a working prototype that can be used to explore and better understand some of the issues raised by your vision of future interactions.

Grading

• 30% Participation in the class discussion
• 30% Mid-term project and presentation
• 40% Final Project and presentation

Enrollment: This is a project course with enrollment limited to ~24 to keep a design studio atmosphere. If you’re interested in taking the class and/or want to receive more information,