David Merrill: Toy tiles that talk to each other

Translator: Aitor Imaz Reviewer: Jon Goikolea

I want to start out by asking you to think back to when you were a kid,

Hasteko, umeak zineteneko garaiaz gogoratzeko eskatu nahi dizuet,

playing with blocks.

blokeekin jolasten zenuten garaiaz.

As you figured out how to reach out and grasp,

Eskua luzatu eta blokeak hartu, jaso

pick them up and move them around,

eta inguruan nola mugitu behar ziren ulertzea lortzen ari zinetenean,

you were actually learning how to think and solve problems

egiatan espazio harremanak ulertuz eta manipulatuz

by understanding and manipulating spatial relationships.

nola pentsatu eta arazoak konpondu ikasten ari zineten.

Spatial reasoning is deeply connected

Arrazoibide espaziala eta gure inguruko munduaren zati handi bat

to how we understand a lot of the world around us.

ulertzeko daukagun modua sakonki lotuta daude.

So, as a computer scientist

Hartara, objektu fisikoekiko dugun interakzioaren

inspired by this utility of our interactions with physical objects --

baliagarritasun honek bultzatutako informatikaria naizen neurrian --

along with my adviser Pattie, and my collaborator Jeevan Kalanithi --

nire aholkulari Pattie eta nire laguntzaile Jeevan Kalanithi-rekin batera --

I started to wonder -- what if when we used a computer,

Nire buruari galdetu nion -- zer gertatuko litzateke ordenagailu bat erabiltzeko garaian,

instead of having this one mouse cursor that was a like a digital fingertip

mahaigain lau batean mugitzen den hatz punta digitala

moving around a flat desktop,

bezala den sagu-kurtsorea erabili ordez,

what if we could reach in with both hands and grasp information physically,

zer gertatuko litzateke bi eskuak luzatzeko eta fisikoki informazioa hartzeko aukera bagenu,

arranging it the way we wanted?

guk nahi bezala antolatuz?

This question was so compelling that we decided to explore the answer,

Horren kilikagarria zen galdera hori ezen erantzuna bilatzea erabaki genuen,

by building Siftables.

Siftables sortuz.

In a nutshell, a Siftable is an interactive computer

Hitz bitan, Siftable gaileta baten tamainako

the size of a cookie.

ordenagailu interaktiboa da.

They're able to be moved around by hand,

Eskuaz alde batetik bestera mugi daitezke,

they can sense each other, they can sense their motion,

elkarren presentzia suma dezateke, besteen mugimenduak nabari ditzateke,

and they have a screen and a wireless radio.

eta pantaila eta hari gabeko irratia dauzkate.

Most importantly, they're physical,

Are garrantzitsuago, fisikoak dira,

so like the blocks, you can move them just by reaching out and grasping.

eta beraz blokeak bezala, alde batetik bestera mugitzeko nahikoa da eskua luzatu eta hauek eustea.

And Siftables are an example of a new ecosystem

Eta Siftables-ak informazio digitala manipulatzeko

of tools for manipulating digital information.

tresna ekosistema berri baten adibide bat ere badira.

And as these tools become more physical,

Eta tresna hauek fisikoagoak bilakatzen diren neurrian,

more aware of their motion, aware of each other,

bere mugimenduez gehiago jabetzen diren neurrian, elkarren presentziaz,

and aware of the nuance of how we move them,

guk nola mugitzen ditugunen ñabardurez,

we can start to explore some new and fun interaction styles.

orduan, interakzio mota berri eta dibertigarriak aztertzen hasi gaitezke.

So, I'm going to start with some simple examples.

Adibide soil batzuekin hasiko naiz.

This Siftable is configured to show video,

Siftable hau bideoa erakusteko konfiguratuta dago,

and if I tilt it in one direction, it'll roll the video this way;

eta alde batera okertzen badut, bideoa alde honetara biratuko du,

if I tilt it the other way it rolls it backwards.

beste aldera okertzen badut, atzeraka biratuko du.

And these interactive portraits are aware of each other.

Erretratu interaktibo hauek elkarren presentzia ere suma dezateke

So if I put them next to each other, they get interested.

Hartara, bata bestearen ondoan ipintzen baditut, interesa pizten zaie.

If they get surrounded, they notice that too,

Inguratuta badaude ere ohartzen dira,

they might get a little flustered.

pittin bat urduritu daitezke.

And they can also sense their motion and tilt.

Bere mugimenduaz eta makurduraz ere jabetu daitezke.

One of the interesting implications on interaction, we started to realize,

Interakzioari dagokionez ondorio interesgarrietako bat, konturatzen hasiak ginen,

was that we could use everyday gestures on data,

datuekin eguneroko keinuak erabili genitzakeela zen,

like pouring a color the way we might pour a liquid.

kolore bat likido bat isuriko genukeen bezala isuri genezakeela, adibidez.

So in this case, we've got three Siftables configured to be paint buckets

Hala, kasu honetan hiru Siftable ditugu pintura ontzi bezala konfiguratuta

and I can use them to pour color into that central one,

eta erdiko horretan kolorea isurtzeko erabili ditzaket,

where they get mixed.

non nahastuko diren.

If we overshoot, we can pour a little bit back.

Pasatzen bagara, pittin bat atzera isuri dezakegu.

There are also some neat possibilities for education,

Hezkuntzan ere aukera ederrak daude,

like language, math and logic games

jendeari gauzak azkar probatu eta berehala

where we want to give people the ability to try things quickly,

emaitzak ikusteko aukera eman nahi diogun

and view the results immediately.

hizkuntza, matematika eta logika jokoetan adibidez.

So here I'm --

Hona hemen --

(Applause)

(Txaloak)

This is a Fibonacci sequence that I'm making with a simple equation program.

Honako hau Fibonacci sekuentzia bat da, ekuazio programa soil batekin sortzen ari naizena.

Here we have a word game that's kind of like a mash-up between Scrabble and Boggle.

Hona hemen hitz joku bat, Scrabble eta Boggle-en nahasketa antzeko bat dena.

Basically, in every round

Funtsean, Siftable bakoitzean

you get a randomly assigned letter on each Siftable,

ausaz hautatutako letra bat egokitzen zaizu txanda bakoitzean,

and as you try to make words it checks against a dictionary.

eta hitzak osatzen saiatzen zoazen bitartean hiztegi batean egiaztatzen ditu.

Then, after about 30 seconds, it reshuffles,

Orduan, 30 segundu eta gero, berriz nahasten dira

and you have a new set of letters and new possibilities to try.

eta honela letra multzo berri bat eta saiatzeko aukera berri gehiago dauzkazu.

(Applause)

(Txaloak)

Thank you.

Eskerrik asko.

(Applause)

(Txaloak)

So these are some kids that came on a field trip to the Media Lab,

Haur hauek Media Lab-era etorri ziren bisitaldi batean,

and I managed to get them to try it out, and shoot a video.

eta bideoan grabatzen genituen bitartean haiek jokoa probatzea lortu nuen.

They really loved it.

Biziki gogoko izan zuten.

And, one of the interesting things about this kind of application

Eta aplikazio mota honen gauzarik interesgarrienetakoa da

is that you don't have to give people many instructions.

ez dela beharrezkoa jendeari gehiegizko azalpenik ematea.

All you have to say is, "Make words,"

Esan behar duzun bakarra da, "Hitzak osatu",

and they know exactly what to do.

eta beraiek hortik aurrera egin beharrekoa zehatz-mehatz dakite.

So here's another few people trying it out.

Hona hemen jende gehiago jokoa probatzen.

That's our youngest beta tester, down there on the right.

Horko hura gure beta probatzaile gazteena da, behean eskubitara.

Turns out, all he wanted to do was to stack the Siftables up.

Kontua da, berak nahi zuen bakarra Siftables-ak metatzea zela.

So to him, they were just blocks.

Berarentzako, blokeak besterik ez ziren.

Now, this is an interactive cartoon application.

Honoko hau marrazki bizidun interaktiboen aplikazio bat da.

And we wanted to build a learning tool for language learners.

Hizkuntza ikasleentzako tresna bat sortu nahi genuen

And this is Felix, actually.

Eta hemengo hau Felix da.

And he can bring new characters into the scene,

Pertsonaia berriak sartu ditzake eszenan,

just by lifting the Siftables off the table that have that character shown on them.

pertsonaia hori erakusten duen Siftable-a mahaitik altxatuz, besterik gabe.

Here, he's bringing the sun out.

Hemen, eguzkia ateratzen ari da.

Video: The sun is rising.

Bideoa: Eguzkia ateratzen ari da.

David Merrill: Now he's brought a tractor into the scene.

David Merrill: Orain traktore bat sartu du eszenan.

Video: The orange tractor.

Bideoa: Laranja-koloreko traktorea.

Good job! Yeah!

Lan bikaina! Bai horixe!

DM: So by shaking the Siftables and putting them next to each other

Eta Siftable-ak astinduz eta bata bestearen ondoan ipiniz

he can make the characters interact --

pertsonaiek elkarrekin hitz egitea lortu dezake --

Video: Woof!

Bideoa: Au!

DM: inventing his own narrative.

DM: Bere narratiba pertsonala asmatuz.

Video: Hello!

Bideoa: Kaixo!

DM: It's an open-ended story,

DM: Amaiera irekiko istorioa da

and he gets to decide how it unfolds.

eta berak erabakitzen du nola garatzen den.

Video: Fly away, cat.

Bideoa: Katua airean irteten da.

DM: So, the last example I have time to show you today

DM: Gaur zuei erakusteko denbora dudan azkeneko adibidea

is a music sequencing and live performance tool

musika sekuentziaziorako eta zuzeneko saioetarako

that we've built recently,

berriki sortu dugun tresna da,

in which Siftables act as sounds

non Siftable-ek baxu, bateria

like lead, bass and drums.

eta soinu gidari bezala jardun dezakete.

Each of these has four different variations,

Hauetako bakoitzak lau bariazio izan ditzake,

you get to choose which one you want to use.

norberak aukeratzen du zein erabili.

And you can inject these sounds into a sequence

Soinu hauek sekuentzia batean sartu daitezke,

that you can assemble into the pattern that you want.

era berean norberak nahi duen soinu-ereduan eratu daitekeena.

And you inject it by just bumping up the sound Siftable against a sequence Siftable.

Soinu bat sartzeko nahikoa da soinu Siftable-a sekuentzia Siftable baten kontra astintzea.

There are effects that you can control live, like reverb and filter.

Efektu batzuk ere zuzenean kontrola daitezke, hala nola erreberberazioa eta soinu-iragazkia.

You attach it to a particular sound and then tilt to adjust it.

Soinu jakin bati eransten zaizkio eta ondoren, egokitzeko okertzea nahikoa da.

And then, overall effects like tempo and volume

Baita ere, tempoa eta bolumena bezalako efektu orokorrak,

that apply to the entire sequence.

sekuentzia osoari aplikatzen zaizkionak.

So let's have a look.

Ikus dezagun nola.

Video: (Music)

Bideoa: (Musika)

DM: We'll start by putting a lead

DM: Bi sekuentzia Siftable-etan

into two sequence Siftables, arrange them into a series,

soinu gidari bat ezarriz hasiko gara, sail batean antolatzen ditugu,

extend it, add a little more lead.

luzatu eta soinu gidari pittin bat gehiago gehitu.

Now I put a bass line in.

Baxu lerro bat ipiniko dut orain.

Video: (Music)

Bideoa: (Musika)

DM: Now I'll put some percussion in.

DM: Perkusio pixka bat sartuko dut orain.

Video: (Music)

Bideoa: (Musika)

DM: And now I'll attach the filter to the drums, so I can control the effect live.

DM: Eta orain, soinu-iragazkia erantsiko diot orain bateriari, zuzenean efektua kontrolatzeko aukera emango didana.

Video: (Music)

Bideoa: (Musika)

DM: I can speed up the whole sequence

DM: Sekuentzia osoa bizkorrago jotzea lortu dezaket

by tilting the tempo one way or the other.

tempoa alde batera edo bestera okertuz.

Video: (Music)

Bideoa: (Musika)

DM: And now I'll attach the filter to the bass for some more expression.

DM: Eta orain soinu-iragazkia erantsiko diot baxuari espresio gehiago lortzeko.

Video: (Music)

Bideoa: (Musika)

DM: I can rearrange the sequence while it plays.

DM: Sekuentzia jotzen ari den bitartean birrantolatu dezaket.

So I don't have to plan it out in advance, but I can improvise,

Alegia, ez da beharrezkoa aldez aurretik antolatzea, bat-batean asmatu dezaket,

making it longer or shorter as I go.

egin ahala luzeago edo motzago eginez.

And now, finally, I can fade the whole sequence out

Eta orain, azkenik, sekuentzia osoaren soinua pixkanaka desagertarazi dezaket

using the volume Siftable, tilted to the left.

bolumen Siftable-a erabiliz, ezkerrera okertuz.

(Applause)

(Txaloak)

Thank you.

Eskerrik asko.

So, as you can see,

Ikusi dezakezuenez,

my passion is for making new human-computer interfaces

nire grina gure garun eta gorputzek lan egiten duten erara hobeto egokitzen diren

that are a better match to the ways our brains and bodies work.

gizaki-ordenagailu interfaze berriak sortzea da.

And today, I had time to show you one point in this new design space,

Eta gaur, zuei diseinu espazio berri honetako puntu bat erakusteko aukera izan dut,

and a few of the possibilities that we're working to bring out of the laboratory.

eta laborategitik kalera ateratzeko lanean ari garen aukeratako batzuk.

So the thought I want to leave you with

Utzi nahi dizuedan gogoeta, zera da,

is that we're on the cusp of this new generation of tools

euskarri digitalekin lan egiteko

for interacting with digital media

tresna belaunaldi baten atarian gaudela,

that are going to bring information into our world

informazioa gure munduan

on our terms.

guk ezarritako baldintzetan ekarriko dutenak

Thank you very much.

Eskerrik asko.

I look forward to talking with all of you.

Zuekin hitz egiteko irrikitzen nago.

(Applause)

(Txaloak)