Dual reality : an emerging medium

The commoditization of low-power radios, a rich set of sensors, longer-lasting batteries, and feature-rich microcontrollers has prompted significant research efforts to imbue physical environments with the responsiveness and awareness afforded by ubiquitous, unobtrusive, low-maintenance sensor networks. However, despite these technical advances, there has been relatively little progress toward finding compelling applications enabled by such sensor networks. What few applications have been demonstrated generally use sensor networks to passively monitor environments either inaccessible or uninteresting to people, such as remote wilderness, factory floors, and health care scenarios. Yet, by definition, any "killer application" of sensor networks must be both popular and widespread. At the same time, online virtual worlds promising complete freedom of creation and interaction are quickly becoming economically, socially, and technically feasible and are making inroads into the mass media market. Yet, despite their popularity, or maybe even because of it, today's online virtual worlds are marred by a stagnation and emptiness inherent in environments so disconnected from the physical world. Furthermore, the demand for richer modes of self-expression in virtual worlds remains unmet. This dissertation proposes the convergence of sensor networks and virtual worlds not only as a possible solution to their respective limitations, but also as the beginning of a new creative medium. In the "dual reality" resulting from this convergence, both the real and virtual worlds are complete unto themselves, but also enhanced by the ability to mutually reflect, influence, and merge into each other by means of sensor/actuator networks deeply embedded in everyday environments.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. Program in Media Arts and Sciences.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Lifton, Joshua Harlan, 1976-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Joseph A. Paradiso.

• Architecture. Program in Media Arts and Sciences.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/41707

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/41707