just because
Oct. 8th, 2005 04:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaeclecticFor whatever reason, I just have a yen to try this:
...Just as the "slow food" movement celebrates fine food and the enjoyment of an entire meal experience, "slow communication" devices celebrate our ability to telecommunicate and emphasize the purity and singularity of the communication experience.
One example of such technology is the iso-phone, which could be described as a cross between a telephone and a flotation tank. Iso-phone users are submersed completely underwater and wear a special mask that blocks out external aural and visual distraction while providing compressed air for normal breathing. The water is heated to body temperature, dulling the sense of touch, and blurring the physical boundaries of the user's body. The only sensory stimulus presented is a two-way connection to another person possibly using the same apparatus in another location.
Trials of the Iso-phone at exhibitions suggest that the system enables a more relaxed stream-of-consciousness style of conversation that might be well-suited to activities requiring creativity such as brainstorming meetings. Participants also lose their sense of the passage of time and display unexpected behaviors, such as gesturing not only with the arms but also with the legs and the entire body, which are unencumbered while floating in the water tank.
(extract from an article in a back issue of interactions magazine, written by this guy; developed by those crazy kids at the Human Connectedness group, an offshoot of MIT Media Lab's European branch, as if you couldn't have guessed! it's almost better than the animatronic squirrel phone!)
...Just as the "slow food" movement celebrates fine food and the enjoyment of an entire meal experience, "slow communication" devices celebrate our ability to telecommunicate and emphasize the purity and singularity of the communication experience.
One example of such technology is the iso-phone, which could be described as a cross between a telephone and a flotation tank. Iso-phone users are submersed completely underwater and wear a special mask that blocks out external aural and visual distraction while providing compressed air for normal breathing. The water is heated to body temperature, dulling the sense of touch, and blurring the physical boundaries of the user's body. The only sensory stimulus presented is a two-way connection to another person possibly using the same apparatus in another location.
Trials of the Iso-phone at exhibitions suggest that the system enables a more relaxed stream-of-consciousness style of conversation that might be well-suited to activities requiring creativity such as brainstorming meetings. Participants also lose their sense of the passage of time and display unexpected behaviors, such as gesturing not only with the arms but also with the legs and the entire body, which are unencumbered while floating in the water tank.
(extract from an article in a back issue of interactions magazine, written by this guy; developed by those crazy kids at the Human Connectedness group, an offshoot of MIT Media Lab's European branch, as if you couldn't have guessed! it's almost better than the animatronic squirrel phone!)