Dual Reality Lab

"Dual reality" is the concept of maintaining two worlds, one virtual and one real, that reflect, influence, and merge into each other by means of deeply embedded sensor/actuator networks. Both the real and virtual components of a dual reality are complete unto themselves, but are enriched by their mutual interaction. The dual reality Media Lab is an example of such a dual reality, as enabled the Plug sensor/actuator network that links our actual lab space to a virtual lab space in the Second Life online virtual world.

[MOV] A brief tour of Shadow Lab. Each "Pond" is drawn on a Media Lab third-floor map at the point where a PLUG node is located (the Responsive Environments Lab is rendered in more detail). The metaphor shown in this video animates (at each node) orange smoke in proportion to the net current drawn from the PLUG outlets, the amount of wave in the fronds indicating the amount of motion detected around the PLUG node, the "ripples" around the pond corresponding with the local audio amplitude, the height of the fronds corresponding to the local amount of light, and the color of the fronds mapped to the local temperature.

The most encompassing publication on this work thusfar is Josh Lifton's Phd Thesis (August 2007).

[PDF] Slides for a talk given at the MIT Media Lab's Spring 2007 Things That Think (TTT) consortium meeting Dual Reality break out dinner session on 10 May 2007. This talk is a refined version of a talk originally given on 2 February 2007 at a DARPA ISAT meeting, again at the Samsung SISA lab on 29 March 2007, and for a third time at the IPSN SPOTS conference on 26 April 2007.