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All hail the tireless boffins at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for pouring their lauded resources and abilities into furthering mankind’s technological prowess via the creation of… intelligent Post-it notes.
MIT PhD student develops new advanced Post-It messaging application. Image: Jacob Botter/Flickr.
Granted, such an advance is unlikely to garner much peer distinction but it is rather hard to deny the everyday value of Post-its, and why should such a scribble-friendly cornerstone of office life be passed over by technological evolution?
MIT’s new “Quickies” system functions through the incorporation of A.I. (artificial intelligence), RFID (radio frequency identification) and ink-recognition, without ever compromising Post-it’s internationally renowned ‘square yellow pad’ format.
Essentially, users write on their pads as per usual but, rather than whipping the finished note from the pad and slapping it on a colleague’s computer monitor, the pad’s integrated software transfers the note’s written content directly to the recipient’s waiting computer screen or phone. Genius.
“‘Quickies’ are stickies that have some intelligence and the ability to remind us about the task we ought to perform or to provide us at the right time with the information we captured in the past. ‘Quickies’ enrich the experience of using sticky notes by allowing them to be tracked and managed more effectively,” outlined creator Pranav Mistry, a PhD student working out of the MIT Media Lab.
“The project explores how the use of RFID, Artificial Intelligence and ink recognition technologies can make it possible to create intelligent sticky notes that can be searched, located, can send reminders and messages, and more broadly, can help us to seamlessly connect our physical and digital worlds,” he added.
MIT’s Quickies, while impressive, is not the first such ink recognition communication tool offered up by the technology world in recent years. For example, the Anoto pen and Logitech IO Pen are similar in their level of usefulness, while Microsoft Research Cambridge has also developed the ‘Text-It-Notes’ system, which is capable of relaying written messages as mobile phone texts.
View the video clip below to learn more about the advantages and features offered by Quickies.
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