[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA6m2fxpxZk[/youtube]
Invoked computing is a concept developed by a team of researchers from a university in Tokyo, concept which can turn any ordinary object into a mobile phone, computer, etc. Researchers are using a new technology to design various functions of electronic devices on ordinary objects that we find almost everywhere. To demonstrate the whole concept, a banana was transformed into a mobile phone and a pizza box was transformed into a touchscreen with which the user can interact.
In this project we explore the reverse scenario: a ubiquitous intelligence capable of discovering and instantiating affordances suggested by human beings (as mimicked actions and scenarios involving objects and drawings). Miming will prompt the ubiquitous computing environment to "condense" on the real object, by supplementing it with artificial affordances through common AR techniques.
Practically everything is based on a combination of augmented reality and image and sound design techniques, and you can see the result in the images above. Of course, such technologies are now only available in the form of prototypes and can be used by anyone in the wider world. The idea is interesting, it has a "future" one, but now it exceeds what most imagine a computer can do.
An example: taking a banana and bringing it closer to the ear. The gesture is clear enough: directional microphones and parametric speakers hidden in the room would make the banana function as a real handset on the spot. To "invoke" an application, the user just needs to mimic a specific scenario. The system will try to recognize the suggested affordance and instantiate the represented function through AR techniques (another example: to invoke a laptop computer, the user could take a pizza box, open it and "tape" on its surface)."
