Translator: TED Translators admin Reviewer: Denise RQ
I'll being from a slide that shows an event I regard as quite surprising,
that is Steve Job's presentation,
in the context of his worldwide launch of the iPad 2,
of an application conceived in Italy by Applix
and developed by the Mondadori company.
The fact that the emperor of the digital empire
had gone to the borders of the empire,
- you know, we are not the world leaders in the digital world -
in order to pick the application made by one of his far-away subjects
and to present it as a symbol
of the future developments of his product is astonishing.
I was astonished, so I tried to understand why he chose to do so.
Let's listen.
(English) Steve Jobs: The things people are doing are amazing.
And again, they're taking advantage
of this incredible magical user interface
on a much larger canvas with more resources--
Roberto Carraro: Basically, he's saying that there are some surprising interfaces
more specifically, there is one that enlarges the iPad screen.
Actually, our technology, developed in Italy,
modifies iPad's usage paradigm, and that's probably what surprised Jobs,
who possibly wanted to underline
the ongoing evolution of the iPad toward augmented reality.
This technology is called BubbleViewer
and allows us to build virtual bubbles around ourselves.
Here is its quite simple feature:
allows us, for instance,
to see the Coliseum as it was in the past and as it is today.
We'll see some applications:
here again is the scene we have just seen
in which the reconstruction of the Coliseum travels through time.
Bubble Viewer fundamental feature
is it can display many digital worlds around the user.
The screen turns into a "telescope":
here we have the House of the Faun in Pompeii, in a virtual world,
and here is a picture that becomes three dimensional, this Ideal City.
It's a new way to experience the territory, as we have seen,
that allows us to have an engaging experience
and to discover the invisible.
For instance, the Mausoleum of Hadrian superimposed on Castle S.Angelo.
It is also possible to realize industrial applications
that might be used in many fields.
It's a open window on countless digital worlds.
For instance, here we can see the Circus Maximus,
as it is today, and as it was in the past.
Bubble Viewer fundamental characteristic can be found
in its peculiar relation with the cosmos.
Thanks to its digital compass, inclinometer, and GPS,
it creates a world around us.
Let's go ahead and analyze the following question:
what does this scenario entail?
It probably is rather evident to everyone,
because of its immediateness,
that the post-PC era, christened, and launched by Steve Jobs,
defines some new devices
that are prosthesis of the brain and of the senses.
What we ought to do as designers - I am a digital designer -
at this point is to design multisensorial experiences,
to be lived either in a digital world
or in worlds that are a composite of digital and real worlds.
This slide describes this scenario rather clearly.
Steve Jobs invented, or at least imposed
the desktop metaphor to the market through the Mac.
The position of the human being was rather simple:
sitting in a office, facing a static screen.
Physical interaction was quite limited, just a keyboard and a mouse.
What's presently happening, thanks to the new devices imposed by Jobs,
basically, is that the contexts
in which we relate with a digital world are multiplying.
Initially we were sitting in front of objects
that are, in essence, parts of a digital desktop.
So we had a paper bin, some documents, and some folders.
Presently, we are facing entirely different objects,
simply because the window on the digital world
is no longer restricted to an office, it's everywhere.
Clearly, an extremely interesting scenario,
both from a design and from an anthropological point of view,
has become available.
Basically, humans are leaving the chair: now they are standing on their feet,
or using the car, or laying down, and can now read books at long last --
I didn't read books on PC; actually it's because of an issue
with the human backbone, not a technological problem --
and to play, to move, to interact through hands
to consult the world at any time,
and are now able to interact with reality through new devices,
using them as filters.
Kinaesthesia, or motor intelligence, is the new element in design.
Kinaesthesia is a form of intelligence activated when we learn to ride a bike.
A "motor learning" occurs when a children learns how to ride a bike,
followed by the formation of a kinaesthetic memory,
so that he will always remember how to ride a bike.
So, it's a form of intelligence, as the logical and the visual forms are.
This form of intelligence is entering the digital world.
An it is becoming a leading actor in this scenario.
Let' see in what context is happening, let's have some tangible examples.
The latest success, for instance, in videogaming,
has got kinaesthetic characteristics.
That's the Greek work "Kinè", from which kinaesthesia is derived,
which means "movement".
Basically, the body enters the digital world
and interacts with it through an object or directly through hands.
The car is also changing.
We are working on a European on augmented driving,
implementing augmented driving technologies in a car.
Notice that we are not in an office,
we are operating in a dangerous environment
such as a factory floor, or a foundry, in which one may easily get killed.
First of all, the designer must put limits to my kinaesthesia, I must be controlled.
My priority must be keeping my eyes
on the street, checking out what is going on.
Actually, augmented reality ought to check out for cars,
pedestrians, or street signs containing indications.
Yet, I am also able interact with it.
Basically, each usage context should produce a specific extension.
At times, it could become a matter of life or death,
as we know that using mobile devices while moving can lead to accidents.
The designer ought to consider that aspect as well.
Smartphones. Here is the key challenge.
The great "iPhone episode" has introduced, through a mass distributed success,
the use of Internet and of the digital world
in a device that, previously, was only a vocal device.
Initially, we were able to walk while using the cellphone,
as we were only talking.
Now, if we want to interact with it we must stop,
lest we crash, as if we were driving a car.
This is an huge opportunity that ought to be studied.
Consider that the introduction of the digital world in the cellphones
will move, in the next 3-4 years, all Italians,
toward owning an enormously powerful prosthesis,
far more powerful than voice,
that will allow us to access a huge wealth of information at any moment.
Actually it represents a growth opportunity as well,
the opportunity of making Italy itself smarter.
Smartphones and tablets as ergonomic revolutions.
The fundamental kinaesthesia applied by Jobs to the iPhone
is the so called "touch".
It's a set of patents describing finger movements.
Why fingers? That was one of the keys to success: touching reduces barriers.
On reflection, hands, as eyes and mouth,
are one of the key devices through which thought operates on the world.
Especially in arts,
as we paint with hands and compose music with hands.
Hands are a fundamental instrument
in materializing a thought into the world.
Let's look at some applications
of hands in the world of arts.
We have developed
some kinaesthetic experiences, quite focused on using fingers.
In these works,
realized in collaboration with Mondadori,
we have many manipulable objects of many kinds
that can be turned or interacted with as if they were real objects.
Here by using fingers, we can add colors,
or recover the original colors of roman works of art.
We can also transform works of art
in order to analyze them, to make them dynamic.
Always by using hands, by using fingers to explore this world
like, for instance, the Coliseum area,
transformed by Nero in the Domus Aurea,
later becoming the Flavius Amphitheater.
By using fingers we can quickly travel through time.
We can cover an infinite number of scenarios made available to us.
We hold a world in our hands.
One additional thought on this scenario.
I am convinced that there is something disquieting in this scenario,
or rather, many among you think so.
From some point of view,
this presence of virtual worlds,
that we have seen in movies such as "The Matrix"
creates some worries,
for it is considered to be quite inhuman.
I don't think it is. Let's consider an anthropological aspect.
About 35,000 years ago,
the Homo Sapiens clearly distinguished himself
through some works of art that basically are bubbles.
When visiting the Palaeolithic paintings in Lascaux,
essentially, we are entering a Bubble.
Which probably was a multisensory one, for it was animated by rites.
So immersive worlds are as old as mankind.
We can witness that in Padua, in Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel,
or in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel
where we become immersed in a bubble.
We are trying to understand how art
that indeed is a multisensory discipline,
could have a role in this scenario.
Indeed what good are the digital worlds, if art can't enter into them?
What good are they, if they can't enhance our thinking?
Merely good for a chat on Facebook?
That's the challenge,
a challenge in which culture has to find its way on these new paths.
Let' see one of them, dedicated to cathedrals.
This is a virtual cathedral, representing a new project being developed by us
actually this is a book, not a design for a cathedral, it's a multisensory Bible.
After all, cathedrals have always been multisensory experiences
representing sacred scriptures.
Genesis can be found on the floors of many churches
as well as the Apocalypse on many vaults.
Painting, music, sculpture, architecture converge in this scenario.
(Music)
One working hypothesis
is to start conceiving
a multisensory art for the digital era.
An art that would intrigue the senses,
that would build environments that are not only human
but actually deeply human and connected to our past.
Actually, the presently developing challenge
is far less complex than a cathedral.
It's the living room in which we watch TV and rest every day.
Actually the PC wasn't the dominant media
of the last years; it was the television.
The greatest revolution will not be the one that will modify the PC,
but rather the one that will modify the TV from a social point of view.
This is the most fascinating and the most imminent scenario,
it's going to happen in a short while.
New types of vocal interaction with television are being experimented,
as well as new types of gestural interaction,
even using already available technologies.
This is the present challenge: conceiving a revolution
that is not only an ergonomic and technological one,
but a political and social one as well.
And part of the present challenge
is also creating jobs, creating a strong innovation
that would help us increase the GDP from 2% to 7%,
giving work to our youngsters.
This is the scenario in which jobs will be created,
especially for young people.
Therefore, we must be brave enough to undertake this development,
to modify our relations
with those context that ought to be modified,
to create new opportunity, especially for young people.
So I would like to point out
as an interesting path,
a path that would lead to an Italian design in the digital world.
Let's consider that, in fact,
we as Italians have been designing
physical objects and works of art for centuries,
we have distinguished ourselves thanks to this fact.
This discipline was born in the last decades,
and we managed to become its world leaders
and it has designed any kind of object, certainly physical objects.
The challenge for the new century is bringing this experience,
that also contains a lifestyle envied by everyone,
into the digital experience.
For the digital experience is a scenario too important to be neglected.
It's more important than designing a chair, a sofa, or a car.
Actually, far more is at stake.
And we can play this game and maybe have an important role as well.
Goodbye.
(Applause)