We've evolved with tools, and tools have evolved with us.
人类发明了工具，工具也影响着人类。
Our ancestors created these hand axes 1.5 million years ago, shaping them to not only fit the task at hand but also their hand.
1500万年前，我们的祖先创造了这些掌上刀具，它们被打磨得不仅适用于手工活计，也十分小巧，方便单手操控。
However, over the years, tools have become more and more specialized.
然而，随着时间的流逝，工具变得越来越专业化。
These sculpting tools have evolved through their use, and each one has a different form which matches its function.
这些雕刻工具根据人们的需要不断改变着，每一种都有与它们的作用相对应的形状。
And they leverage the dexterity of our hands in order to manipulate things with much more precision.
它们提高了我们双手的灵活性，使得我们在操纵物品时更加精确。
But as tools have become more and more complex, we need more complex controls to control them.
但是当工具变得越来越复杂的同时，控制它们的方式也变得越来越复杂。
And so designers have become very adept at creating interfaces
因此当今设计师们致力于开发一些交互方式，
that allow you to manipulate parameters while you're attending to other things,
使你在做一件事的同时还能调整其他功能，
such as taking a photograph and changing the focus or the aperture.
比如你在照相的同时还可以调整焦距或调整光圈。
But the computer has fundamentally changed the way we think about tools because computation is dynamic.
但是计算机的出现从根本上改变了我们对工具的认识，因为它的计算功能十分强大。
So it can do a million different things and run a million different applications.
它可以做各种不同的事情，也可以运行数量繁多的应用程序。
However, computers have the same static physical form for all of these different applications and the same static interface elements as well.
然而计算机有着它固定的外形，这个外形不会因为运行不同的程序而改变，并且它和人交互的方式也是不变的。
And I believe that this is fundamentally a problem,
我认为这本身就是一个问题，
because it doesn't really allow us to interact with our hands and capture the rich dexterity that we have in our bodies.
因为这样一来我们就无法用双手去参与和计算机交互的过程，无法体现人体的灵活性。
And my belief is that, then, we must need new types of interfaces that can capture these rich abilities
我的理念是，一定要开发一些新的交互方式，能利用人体的这些优秀特性，
that we have and that can physically adapt to us and allow us to interact in new ways.
能完全适应我们的需要，还能以新的方式与我们互动。
And so that's what I've been doing at the MIT Media Lab and now at Stanford.
这就是我之前一直在MIT媒体实验室，以及现在在斯坦福从事的工作。
So with my colleagues, Daniel Leithinger and Hiroshi Ishii, we created inFORM,
我和我的同事，Daniel Leithinger和Hiroshi Ishii，我们一起创造了inFORM，
where the interface can actually come off the screen and you can physically manipulate it.
它让交互界面真正意义上脱离了屏幕，你可以亲手操控它。
Or you can visualize 3D information physically and touch it and feel it to understand it in new ways.
你也可以亲眼目睹它的3D形态，并且触摸它感知它，以全新的方式了解它。
Or you can interact through gestures and direct deformations to sculpt digital clay.
你还可以通过手势直接改变它的形状与它互动，塑造一个数码模型。
Or interface elements can arise out of the surface and change on demand.
组成界面的配件能够从其表面升起，根据需求变形。
And the idea is that for each individual application, the physical form can be matched to the application.
这样设计的目的是，对每个应用，这个界面的外形都可以与这个应用相匹配。
And I believe this represents a new way that we can interact with information, by making it physical.
我相信这代表了一种全新的我们与信息互动的方式，也就是把它具体化。
So the question is, how can we use this?
现在问题来了，我们如何应用它呢？
Traditionally, urban planners and architects build physical models of cities and buildings to better understand them.
一直以来，城建工作者靠实物模型来更好的了解城市和建筑的布局。
So with Tony Tang at the Media Lab, we created an interface built on inFORM to allow urban planners to design and view entire cities.
因此，我们与媒体实验室的Tony Tang一起，创造了一个建立在inFORM上的界面，使得城市规划者们得以设计和展望整个城市。
And now you can walk around it, but it's dynamic, it's physical, and you can also interact directly.
所以现在你可以在它周边走动，但是它是动态的，是实体的，你还能直接跟它互动。
Or you can look at different views, such as population or traffic information, but it's made physical.
你可以从不同的视角观察它，比如人口数量或者交通信息，但是它被做成了一个实体。
We also believe that these dynamic shape displays can really change the ways that we remotely collaborate with people.
我们还相信这些动态形状的展示会真正改变人们远程合作的方式。
So when we're working together in person,
当我们面对面工作时，
I'm not only looking at your face but I'm also gesturing and manipulating objects,
我不仅可以看着你的脸，我还可以比划和操纵物品，
and that's really hard to do when you're using tools like Skype.
这正是我们利用像Skype这样的工具时非常难实现的。
And so using inFORM, you can reach out from the screen and manipulate things at a distance.
当使用inFORM时，你可以触及屏幕以外的东西，并且在远距离操控物品。
So we used the pins of the display to represent people's hands, allowing them to actually touch and manipulate objects at a distance.
这些小方块的移动代表了人类双手的动作，使得人们能够真正远程触碰和操作物品。
And you can also manipulate and collaborate on 3D data sets as well,
你也可以在3D模型上操作或与人合作，
so you can gesture around them as well as manipulate them.
你可以对它们做手势，也可以摆弄它们。
And that allows people to collaborate on these new types of 3D information in a richer way than might be possible with traditional tools.
这就让人们可以用比传统工具更多元的方式，实现在这种新型3D信息上的合作。
And so you can also bring in existing objects, and those will be captured on one side and transmitted to the other.
你还可以在上面放置一些物品，它们会在一边被识别出来，然后把信息传输到另一边。
Or you can have an object that's linked between two places, so as I move a ball on one side, the ball moves on the other as well.
或者你让一件东西两边连通，比如，我在一边移动一个球，这个球会在另一边也移动起来。
And so we do this by capturing the remote user using a depth-sensing camera like a Microsoft Kinect.
我们通过捕捉操作者的动作来实现这些，而这由一个可感测空间深度的摄像机完成，类似微软的Kinect。
Now, you might be wondering how does this all work, and essentially, what it is,
现在你也许想知道这一切是如何运作的，本质上来说，
is 900 linear actuators that are connected to these mechanical linkages that allow motion down here to be propagated in these pins above.
它是把900个线性传动器全部连通到这些机械联动装置上，好让下面的动作能被传送到上面的这些方块上来。
So it's not that complex compared to what's going on at CERN, but it did take a long time for us to build it.
所以跟CERN做的事情比起来，它其实没有那么复杂，但是我们把它做出来确实花费了不少时间。

And so we started with a single motor, a single linear actuator,
我们先做出了一个单独的马达，一个线性传动器，
and then we had to design a custom circuit board to control them.
然后定制了一个电路板来控制它们。
And then we had to make a lot of them.
剩下的就是我们需要做很多同样的装置。
And so the problem with having 900 of something is that you have to do every step 900 times.
问题是，当你需要做900件相同的东西时，你要重复每个制作步骤900次。
And so that meant that we had a lot of work to do.
这意味着我们有大量的工作要做。
So we sort of set up a mini-sweatshop in the Media Lab and brought undergrads in and convinced them to do "research"
因此，我们在媒体实验室建立了一个小型的“血汗工厂”，招募了一些本科生，并说服他们这是在参与“研究”
and had late nights watching movies, eating pizza and screwing in thousands of screws. You know -- research.
之后便有了在深夜看着电影，吃着披萨，拧着成千上万的螺丝的场景。你们懂的，搞研究嘛。
But anyway, I think that we were really excited by the things that inFORM allowed us to do.
但不管怎样，我们都对inFORM能够带来的各种可能性感到十分激动。
Increasingly, we're using mobile devices, and we interact on the go.
如今，我们越来越多地使用移动设备，便于出行时交流。
But mobile devices, just like computers, are used for so many different applications.
然而移动设备，就像电脑，有很多种不同的用途。
So you use them to talk on the phone, to surf the web, to play games, to take pictures or even a million different things.
你可以用它们打电话，上网，玩游戏，照相，甚至更多不同的事。
But again, they have the same static physical form for each of these applications.
但就如之前我提过的，它们都有相同的外形，对每一个不同的应用来讲都一样。
And so we wanted to know how can we take some of the same interactions that we developed for inFORM and bring them to mobile devices.
所以，我们想知道如何能将这些为inFORM研发的交互行为推广到移动设备上。
So at Stanford, we created this haptic edge display,
因此在斯坦福，我们创造了一个触觉边缘显示器。
which is a mobile device with an array of linear actuators that can change shape,
它是一个有着一排线性传动器的手机，这排传动器可以改变形状，
so you can feel in your hand where you are as you're reading a book.
当你用手机阅读时，可以通过感受它的形状变化，了解自己读到哪里了。
Or you can feel in your pocket new types of tactile sensations that are richer than the vibration.
它放在口袋里时，你也可以感受到这种新的、比单纯震动更丰富的触感。
Or buttons can emerge from the side that allow you to interact where you want them to be.
为方便操作，按钮会从侧面浮出，你可以指定它们的位置。
Or you can play games and have actual buttons.
你也可以在玩游戏时拥有真正的按钮了。
And so we were able to do this by embedding 40 small, tiny linear actuators inside the device,
这些能够实现是通过在显示器内嵌入40个微型线性传动器，
and that allow you not only to touch them but also back-drive them as well.
让操作者不仅能触摸按钮，还能反向操纵它们。
But we've also looked at other ways to create more complex shape change.
为了创造更复杂的形状变化，我们还研究了其他方式。
So we've used pneumatic actuation to create a morphing device
我们使用气动装置创造了一个变体设备，
where you can go from something that looks a lot like a phone ... to a wristband on the go.
使用时可以把它弄成一个电话的形状，也可以弄成一个腕带随身佩戴。
And so together with Ken Nakagaki at the Media Lab, we created this new high-resolution version
与媒体实验室的Ken Nakagaki一起，我们创造了这个新的、高精度的版本，
that uses an array of servomotors to change from interactive wristband to a touch-input device to a phone.
它内置一排伺服马达，使得它可以从一个有交互功能的腕带，变成一个可触摸输入的设备，再变成一个电话。
And we're also interested in looking at ways that users can actually deform the interfaces
我们还乐于尝试让用户能真正意义上改变界面的形态，
to shape them into the devices that they want to use.
把它们打造成自己想要的样子。
So you can make something like a game controller, and then the system will understand what shape it's in and change to that mode.
你可以把它捏成一个游戏手柄，然后系统就会识别它当前的形态，从而调整成相应的模式。
So, where does this point? How do we move forward from here?
那么，我们这么做的意义何在呢？这个创意的前景是什么？
I think, really, where we are today is in this new age of the Internet of Things,
我认为，我们当前所处的是一个“物联网”主导的新时代。
where we have computers everywhere -- they're in our pockets, they're in our walls,
计算机无处不在--在我们口袋里，挂在墙上，
they're in almost every device that you'll buy in the next five years.
在未来五年之内几乎每个你会买的设备里。
But what if we stopped thinking about devices and think instead about environments?
但设想，如果我们暂且不考虑这些设备，去关心一下我们的环境呢？
And so how can we have smart furniture or smart rooms or smart environments or cities that can adapt to us physically,
我们如何设计出智能家具，智能房间，智能的生活环境或城市，能够完全适应我们实际的生活需求，
and allow us to do new ways of collaborating with people and doing new types of tasks?
允许我们以新的方式与他人交互合作，实现一些新的功能呢？
So for the Milan Design Week, we created TRANSFORM, which is an interactive table-scale version of these shape displays,
因此，在米兰设计周上，我们展出了TRANSFORM，它是一个之前展示过的、可变交互界面的桌面版本，
which can move physical objects on the surface; for example, reminding you to take your keys.
它可以在其表面上移动物品，比如提醒你拿钥匙。
But it can also transform to fit different ways of interacting.
它也可以变形，以便与你进行其他方式的交流。
So if you want to work, then it can change to sort of set up your work system.
比如，如果你要工作，它会将表面变形成你的工作台。
And so as you bring a device over, it creates all the affordances you need and brings other objects to help you accomplish those goals.
你要拿一个设备过来时，它会设置一个你放设备要用的支撑物，并且塑造一些其他东西帮助你完成工作。
So, in conclusion, I really think that we need to think about a new, fundamentally different way of interacting with computers.
总的来说，我真的认为我们要思考一种新的、从根本意义上不同的、与计算机互动的方式。
We need computers that can physically adapt to us
我们需要计算机完全的适应我们，
and adapt to the ways that we want to use them and really harness the rich dexterity that we have of our hands,
而且是以我们期待的方式来适应我们，真正利用我们双手丰富的灵巧度，
and our ability to think spatially about information by making it physical.
以及我们通过把信息实体化去看问题的能力，
But looking forward, I think we need to go beyond this, beyond devices,
但展望未来时，我认为我们需要再跨越一步，跨越这些设备，
to really think about new ways that we can bring people together,
去认真思考新的方式，我们可以集思广益，
and bring our information into the world, and think about smart environments that can adapt to us physically.
把我们的想法传递给这个世界，并且考虑如何创造一个完全适应我们的智能环境。
So with that, I will leave you. Thank you very much.
我的演讲结束了。非常感谢。