Bits and pieces

I just read this New York Times article on how some people, in spite of the fact that they don’t have jobs, still maintain appearances by taking the same commute and donning the same attire. The difference is that these people, instead of going to a construction site or to an office, might be going to a local coffee shop or the library (which reminds me of this article about how librarians nowadays often deal with newly laid off people, but I digress). Stories like these are sobering looks at how everyday people are being affected by the economic downturn, and they’re doubly good because they manage to penetrate my college bubble and allow me a more informed perspective on current events.

Anyways, after the article presents this new phenomenon of unemployed people maintaining their daily routines, it speculates on the psychology behind their actions. The crux of the article is that this could be a healthy activity, at least in the short term. Just as smiling may offer a fleeting but actual boost to your overall happiness, expressions of pride can motivate you to be proactive.

It’s well known that expressions of pride will cause others to perceive you as high status. This by itself is old news, but recent research (detailed in the article) demonstrated that all pride looks the same, whether authentic (stemming from real accomplishments) or hubristic (stemming from narcissism or arrogance).

Then there’s the question of whether proud people will be perceived as arrogant and full of themselves. The results from yet another research study seem to say no. Instead, more prideful people strike others as both more dominant AND more likable. “We found that pride is quite undeserving of its negative reputation,” said David De Steno, associate professor of psychology and co-author of the study. “Pride actually constitutes a functional social emotion with important implications for leadership and the building of social capital.”

In a nutshell, temporary false pride is a useful psychological crutch for those who are now in hard times.

This Wired article on some really recent research at MIT blew me away. This stuff was so good, they were invited to TED to give a talk. Basically, the device takes a bit of the interactivity and conveniently placed information so pervasive on the internet and brings it to the physical world. There’s this video of a graduate student demoing the product in a bunch of situations. For example, he’s walking around a bookstore browsing for books. When he sees one he likes, he removes it from the shelf and holds it in front of him to let the device scan the book’s title. Then when the device is done scanning, it projects a display onto the book cover with the rating the book has gotten from Amazon.com users and perhaps even some choice reviews. And then the guy flips to a random page in the book that has a portrait, and the device picks up on this and starts giving a description of who this figure is.

This kind of reminds me of the audio tours in museums. For those unfamiliar with how that works, you basically rent a headset, and as you walk around, certain exhibits will have numbers next to them. The point is that when you input these numbers into your headset, you’ll get a more thorough description of the exhibit. This is that and so much more.

Another interesting idea is bringing hand gestures into play. You can take a picture by making a picture frame with your fingers and thumbs, and then back at home, you can browse your photo collection on your wall, tweaking them at will. To be honest, this feature is similar to prior multi-touch screen features, but what makes this different is the sheer convenience of it. Instead of buying a relatively stationary surface, you can carry around a small device, and operate on any blank wall or even flat surface.

Then, what I found most impressive was being able to look at a plane ticket and having real time data on delays and gate changes pop up. I can see this being a killer feature, especially for businessmen who go where their companies tell them to. I bet this ability alone will be well worth the cost for company men and jet setters alike.

Right now, this is all enabled by a cameraphone hanging on a lanyard, along with four different colors of marker caps to help the software better distinguish between different fingers. It’s still a bit primitive and hacky, but keep in mind that they’ve only been working on this for four months. I’m excited to see what they’ll come out with in a year or two. Perhaps the technology practiced in Minority Report is not actually so far away.