CMU’s Chris Harrison, developer of technologies that take digital devices to places they’ve never been before—like a phone on your forearm—was selected by MIT’s Technology Review as one of the world’s Top 35 Innovators Under 35.
Harrison has been finding new ways for humans to engage with their technology for several years. There was Skinput, a project that flips the way we use devices like cellphones, dialing a number by tapping a projection on our skin or a table.
There's Lean and Zoom, a system that automatically adjusts the magnification of a computer monitor based on the distance you sit from the screen. This idea has already been commercialized by CMU’s QoLT Foundry.
Touché is a new sensing technique Harrison helped to develop as part of a team at Disney Research, Pittsburgh, that enables objects to sense how they are being touched.
Harrison, 28, is a native of England and Ph.D. student in CMU’s University’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII). The idea is to take everyday devices—a computer mouse or a keyboard—and give it a nuance that makes it easier and more convenient to use.
The list of the illustrious 35 was selected by a panel of experts and the editorial staff of Technology Review based on a evaluation of more than 250 nominations. The 35 winners for 2012 will be featured in the September/October issue of Technology Review.
“Chris has a vision of how interfaces to computing power need to change as our computing environment changes, and the technical skills for making his ideas work in the real world. I can’t think of a better addition to the TR35,” says Justine Cassell, HCII director.
Harrison will join other TR35 honorees in discussing their achievements at the EmTech MIT 2012 conference, at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge Oct. 24-26.
Source: Chris Harrison, CMU
Writer: Debra Smit
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