Dreaming The Impossible at M.I.T.

By Philip Elmer-DeWitt

What if television sets were equipped with knobs that let viewers customize the shows they watch? If they could adjust the sex content, for example, or regulate the violence, or shift the political orientation to the left or right? What if motion pictures were able to monitor the attention level of audiences and modify their content accordingly, lengthening some scenes while cutting others short if they evoke yawns. What if the newspapers that reach subscribers' homes every morning could be edited with each particular reader in mind -- filled with stories selected because they affected his neighborhood, or had an impact on his personal business interests, or mentioned his friends and associates?

There are a lot of "what ifs," but none of these is mere futuristic fantasy. All of them, in fact, are the goals of research projects now under way at the Media Laboratory, a dazzling new academic facility at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The lab's unique mission is to transform today's passive mass media, particularly TV, into flexible technologies that can respond to individual tastes. Because of advances in computers, says Nicholas Negroponte, 43, the co-founder and director, "all media are poised for redefinition. Our purpose is to enhance the quality of life in an electronic age."

Two years ago, when the lab first opened its doors in Cambridge, Mass., the announced intention of "inventing the future" seemed like an impossibly vague undertaking. But Negroponte has made believers of much of the corporate and academic establishment. Bankrolled by more than 100 business and government sponsors, he has filled his $45 million facility with a group of 120 gifted researchers that includes some of the brightest and quirkiest minds in computer science: Marvin Minsky, dean of artificial-intelligence research; Seymour Papert, disciple of Child Psychologist Jean Piaget and a leading ( advocate of computerized education; Alan Kay, one of the most influential designers of personal computers.

Some of the projects are still in the visionary stage, but several investigative teams have come up with working products and prototypes. In many cases, research relating to electronic media has led to spin-offs that could have wide applications for both individuals and businesses. Consider the following:

-- The lab's Conversational Desktop is a voice-controlled computer system that acts like an automatic receptionist, personal secretary and travel agent -- screening calls, taking messages, making airline reservations. "Get me two seats to the Bahamas," says Research Scientist Chris Schmandt to his computer. "When do you want to go?" replies the machine.

-- NewsPeek is a selective electronic newspaper made of material culled daily from news services and television broadcasts. By sliding their fingers across the screen of a computer terminal, viewers can ask to see lengthier versions of particular stories, roll selected videotapes or call up related articles. The computer remembers what it has been asked to show and the next day tailors its news gathering to search for similar stories. Says Associate Director Andrew Lippman: "It's a newspaper that grows to know you."

-- The lab has developed the world's first computer-generated freestanding hologram -- a three-dimensional image of a green Camaro sedan suspended in midair. Unlike most holographic images, which are put onto flat photographic plates, the Camaro is recorded on a concave plate and projected into the air by laser beams. The hologram was designed with funding from General Motors, which still painstakingly builds scale models of new car designs out of clay. In the future, GM and other automakers may be able to use holograms to see what a car will look like before it is actually manufactured. Eventually, such images may be made by laser-age copying machines for a few dollars apiece.

-- In the field of fine arts, the world-class music research center in the lab has already produced the Synthetic Performer, a computerized piano-playing accompanist. The system not only plays along with soloists but also adapts to changes in their tempo and cadence without losing a beat. The project is part of an ongoing effort to explore the mysteries of harmony and composition by teaching music appreciation to computers.

Negroponte began raising funds for the Media Lab in 1980 with the help of Jerome Wiesner, former M.I.T. president. The two men sought out publishers, broadcasters and electronics manufacturers whose businesses were being transformed by the advent of VCRs, cable television and personal computers. Then they hinted broadly that the faculty at M.I.T. knew precisely where all this was headed. Money came in from such leading sponsors as IBM, CBS, Warner Communications, 20th Century Fox, Mitsubishi, Time Inc. and the Washington Post. Sponsors can send scientists and other observers to the Media Lab and make commercial use of any of the facility's research. Though many of the projects may never yield commercial or educational applications, only one company, Toshiba, has failed to renew its funding.

Visitors to the lab, a sleek four-story maze of gadget-filled work areas, are assaulted by strange sights. In a 64-ft.-high atrium, 7-ft.-long computer- controlled blimps may be flying overhead -- part of a project to develop stimulating science activities for elementary and high schools. In another area visitors encounter computers that can read lips. After spending three months at M.I.T. last year, Stewart Brand, the counterculture guru who originated the Whole Earth Catalog, was impressed enough to write a flattering book titled The Media Lab, which will be published next month by Viking Press.

But the lab's high-tech razzle-dazzle masks plenty of serious business. Investigators are experimenting with new forms of teleconferencing. One idea involved projecting video images of individuals onto plaster casts of their faces. The resulting "talking heads" were so lifelike that people using the system felt they were "meeting" with colleagues who were actually in another city. A major effort is also being made to enhance computer animation. Assistant Professor David Zeltzer, building on research he started at Ohio State, is developing new ways of simulating human figures and movement. One application would allow playwrights to see just how scenes would look without having to hire live actors to try them out.

Within the Media Lab there is a lurking fear that the research might prove too successful. Some of the scientists, who point to TV's mesmerizing impact, worry about creating new media so powerfully seductive that they might keep many viewers from venturing into the real world. Minsky, for one, has given that a lot of thought. "Imagine what it would be like if TV actually were good," he told Brand. "It would be the end of everything we know." Yet he and his groundbreaking colleagues seem more than willing to take that risk.

With reporting by Robert Buderi/Cambridge