The Physical World (Heil, Louis M.)

Christopher Heil Introduction to Harmonic

Querying the physical world

In the next decade, millions of sensors and small-scale mobile devices will integrate processors, memory and communication capabilities. Networks of devices will be widely deployed for monitoring applications. In these new applications, users need to query very large collections of devices in an ad-hoc manner. Most existing systems rely on a centralized system for collecting device data. These ...

Tagging the physical world

Since Vannevar Bush’s futuristic vision in 1945 [1] and one of its more recent incarnations, namely MyLifeBits [4], computer scientists have discussed the benefits of capturing data from the physical world (or rather a “mirror” of them) and bringing them to the virtual world, where they can be transformed into usable knowledge. We propose here to revisit this vision following a social tagging a...

Encountering the Physical World

Manufacturing and product design are grounded in the physical world. The entire product lifecycle involves a wide range of integrated tasks that focus on the properties of physical objects, beginning with begins with the design of physical objects and the specification of the materials from which the physical objects are made. Thus, reasoning tasks within manufacturing and product design requir...

Touching the Physical World

I would like to propose going beyond the tactile experience and extend the tangibility to other senses. Imagine a way to interact with an information environment and explore multiple layers of time and space. Spatial exploration is immersive and multidimensional. So, instead of using only a finger as input, the full body acts as pivot point to produce augmented realities, blending the cyberspac...