Professor Barry Lloyd VercoeCo-Founder MIT Media Lab, Boston

Youth Innovation Forum Tauranga Aug 7, 2015

Fostering Innovation

The Vision

• “Future is not to predict, but to design.”– Interdisciplinary research across arts, design,

science and technology, to invent new means for human expression, learning and life.

The MIT Media Lab (1985 -)

One Laptop per Child (2005 -)

Echo Nest Corp (2006 - 2014)

3 organizations that have usedinnovation & creativity

to effect world-wide change:

Seymour Papert

LEGO MindStorms (1998) 1st Successful Collaboration with Industry

• Programmable Bricks designed by Fred Martin at MIT

• LEGO MindStorms products

Where do good Learning Ideas come from?

• Seymour Papert’s work in Constructionism• Children’s programming language LOGO

• LEGO Logo, LEGO Mindstorms

• Jean Piaget

• Sylvia Ashton-Warner

Microencapsulated E-ink

E Books

Radio Paper

The audio spotlightLoudspeaker

Ultrasound Audible

The audio spotlight

Only those withinthe beam can hearthe sound

Directed Audio Projected Audio

Sound can beprojected - just like light

Audio Image

You can put sound where you want it.

Application: Automotive Interiors

In-Place Performers

New Zealand application

Where does innovation spring from?

- clash of cultures- clash of disciplines and ways of thinking- clash of different ways of doing things- high tolerance for failure

Where does innovation spring from?

- clash of cultures- clash of disciplines and ways of thinking- clash of different ways of doing things- high tolerance for failure

What are its deterrents?

- walls and buildings- funding streams- measures of success- mid-level management

How can we FOSTER INNOVATION?

How can we FOSTER INNOVATION?

- create an open research environment that will

maximize lateral connections across a broad range of disciplines

How can we FOSTER INNOVATION?

- create an open research environment that will

maximize lateral connections across a broad range of disciplines

- encourage experiments

-

How can we FOSTER INNOVATION?

- create an open research environment that will

maximize lateral connections across a broad range of disciplines

- encourage experiments

- avoid prescriptive goals

-

Multi-processor Csound

DSP0

Code

Data

ThreadedInstances

Audiosamples

DSP1

Code

Data

Karaoke with a Difference

Distributed Music Performance

One Laptop per Child

(OLPC)

What's different with olpc

• Free and open source software

• Learning through design, construction, expression & collaboration

Maori School in Manaia Coromandel

What should education be when information is only a few clicks away?

• What should children learn?

• Is computational thinking

the new literacy?

• What should machines learn?

Acoustic skill and understanding

Robust Audio Matching For Music Identification Wei Chai

can computer easily identify its

title even if there are some

variations?

Given a short audio clip,

Structural Analysis For Indexing And Thumbnailing Wei Chai

Find the most representative part of a piece

Find the repetitive structure of music

I want to hold your handYesterday

• What else should machines learn?

• Linguistic analysis of chat rooms

to gain insight into social trends

Query by descriptionBrian Whitman

• Relate Community metadata to AudioWhat does Loud mean?

Play something fast with an electronic beat• Find a Natural interface for music

retrieval that captures style

P2P trend maps

• Far more #1s/year than ‘real life’

• 7-14 day lead on big hits

• No genre stratification

• 2006: THE ECHO NEST founded

• 2006: THE ECHO NEST founded

• 2012: Echo Nest becomes the leading Music Intelligence company

Customers include MTV, Spotify

• 2006: THE ECHO NEST founded

• 2012: Echo Nest becomes the leading Music Intelligence company

Customers include MTV, Spotify

2014: Spotify acquires Echo Nest

as its Music Intelligence engine.

Today’s Take-away?

How to FOSTER INNOVATION:

- create an open research environment that will

maximize lateral connections across a broad range of disciplines

- encourage experiments

- avoid prescriptive goals

-