The Japanese Have Built the Future: The "Idea Acceleration Chamber"

You've heard lots about genomic this and nano-that, but deep down we've all really known what high-tech was meant to provide: great big room-filling voice controlled displays.

Technology company Kayac have developed a prototype "idea acceleration chamber" called "Kage Roi". Microphones monitor conversations and search the web for relevant images and pages, displaying them directly on the meeting table, and even controlling the ambient lighting to match the desired mood.

Not since nuclear power has a technology with such an awesome potential for use and abuse come about. Once the idea is liberated from the corporate world and makes its way into the home, it could be the most awesome setting for parties and alcoholically-influenced discussions you've ever seen. You'll need good filters though - there'll always be someone who thinks its fun to say "but we should have a party for lemons because we have two girls but only one cup". If you don't know what that's about, be grateful and move on with the warning that the internet is a much nastier place than you think.

The sheer inventiveness of the idea comes from collaboration with a Keio University digital communications research lab. A place where you can apparently make a full time career out of "finding ways to surf the internet", and which presumably has to beat off job applicants with a stick. This sort of research is becoming increasingly common - while many struggle to make faster this and bigger that, others realise that outside of specialists there isn't any need to make some things better, but to blend them better with their human users.

It's entirely a triumph of ideas - the technology has existed for a while now. LCD projectors are getting cheaper and more power efficient all the time, and there's certainly no need to restrict the final product to a boring tabletop. Voice recognition software still isn't perfect, but the function here is flow, not transcription, so picking out keywords will be more than enough. The system even records everything so no great ideas are lost - like all those times you and your friends solved all the worlds problems, but could only remember a hangover in the morning.

Posted by Luke McKinney

The Idea Acceleration Chamber