The team at Thinking Digital has begun releasing videos of some of this years talks and whilst they’re all great, I’d encourage you to check out Johnny Chung Lee who talks about research into Interface Technology.

If you’ve any interest in Project Natal or any scepticism about the Microsoft 2019 video I’ve talked about on this blog, you’ll love this talk. He brings Minority Report to life though that’s really underplaying the work Johnny and his colleagues are working on. He covers mixed reality devices, input devices and output devices.

There is some breathtaking stuff in here….go to 13:38 for my favourite demo with the newspaper.

All this takes us neatly on the first in a series of pieces from VentureBeat titled Conversations on Innovation. The first entry opens with a scenario that Johnny could probably deliver right now

Imagine I walk into a bar, and see three women. A camera on my chest captures their faces, and sends the information to a phone in my pocket. That phone can recognize who they are instantly by using software to check the web for their profiles on social networking sites. A tiny projector underneath my camera then beams information about them directly on to say, my arm — all of which I can read. The info tells me whether they’re single or married, whether they own a home or not, and if so, how much that home is worth.

Scary? A little…on the flip side Johnny says anyone can make a touch screen for $200 in a weekend. I’m off to Maplin/Radio Shack :)