Enchanted Objects: Design, Human Desire, and the Internet of Things

What innovations will allow us to minimize our reliance on screen based devices and instead inhabit a world seamlessly enmeshed with the wonderments of connected technology? This is the question that tech enterpriser and innovator Rose poses in his new book. Rose seeks to incorporate smart and intuitive technology into everyday objects in order to enchant our milieu, lives, selves, and fulfill our desire for magical objects. This impetus is exemplified in the author's own designs such as an umbrella whose handle glows when rain is forecasted, a prescription bottle lid that glows when you forget to take your medicine, or ambient globes that shift colors to indicate changes in internet data sets. Rose's optimism occasionally blinds him to the drawbacks of his futuristic dreams such as a trash can that gleans marketing information and automatically reorders discarded items, or a tooth that clamps your jaw shut to interrupt unhealthy eating habits, or cameras with visual recognition that identifies strangers. This uncritical stance towards potential pernicious repercussions, coupled with Rose's overt self-promotion compromise the book. If the future is to be inevitably inundated with new technology, Rose creatively re-envisions what forms this will take. If you are as enamored with the possibility of a technologically enchanted life, these niggling concerns will surely not dampen your enjoyment of Rose's imagination, innovation, and entrepreneurship.(July)