# MIT's Media Lab **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 15, 2009, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mits-media-lab/506530 "2009-08-15T16:35:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mits-media-lab/506530/1 "2009-08-15T16:35:23Z")
I read yet another article on MIT’s Media Lab the other day. This one was on the guy who developed the software for combining hundreds of photos into a larger picture, so you got a portrait of Marilyn Monroe or something. Neat, but it got me thinking. I’ve been reading about the Media Lab for decades. Every article talks about how they’re doing the future there. The paperless office. AI. Robots. Wonderful thingies. But I can’t think of one single actual innovation that is widely used that has ever emerged out of the Media Lab. Am I wrong? Does their work merely disappear into nothingness? Do others pick up on bits and pieces and incorporate it? Or is there something on my desk today that came out of the lab that I don’t realize the origin of? ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mits-media-lab/506530/2 "2009-08-15T17:21:50Z")
AFAIK, directly developing shippable products isn’t really a goal of the lab. They’re more of an incubator for ideas, and about a zillion papers get published by students and staff at the lab, which in turn go on to influence other students and researchers elsewhere. So there is an effect on products, but it’s separated by a degree or two of separation. For example, it’d be fair to say that a decent chunk of work on affective computing has been influenced by work done at the lab. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mits-media-lab/506530/3 "2009-08-15T17:26:28Z")
> [@Hunter\_Hawk](#): > > AFAIK, directly developing shippable products isn’t really a goal of the lab. They’re more of an incubator for ideas, and about a zillion papers get published by students and staff at the lab, which in turn go on to influence other students and researchers elsewhere. So there is an effect on products, but it’s separated by a degree or two of separation. > > For example, it’d be fair to say that a decent chunk of work on affective computing has been influenced by work done at the lab. I agree but they do some more direct work under military grants I believe but those are very different from consumer products. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mits-media-lab/506530/4 "2009-08-15T17:37:30Z")
According to the Wikipedia article on the Media Lab (and its own website), E Ink Corporation (whose technology is in the Kindle and other e-readers) and Harmonix (makers of Guitar Hero) are both spin-offs of the Media Lab. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mits-media-lab/506530/5 "2009-08-15T17:38:14Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Am I wrong? No. They do a lot of really interesting things, but almost none of it ends up in production. That’s no slight against them, though–it’s easy to come up with something that you and a few other people think is cool, but it’s very hard to come up with something that lots of people think is cool. ---
**Author:** ![otorophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3ab097/32.png) [@otorophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/otorophile)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mits-media-lab/506530/6 "2009-08-15T18:29:17Z")
I had a bit of the same feeling when working at a different MIT lab this summer. A lot of cool stuff and smart guys, but I’m not sure anything from this lab (which has been around for about 2 decades, I think) has hit the market. I got a bit of a smoke-and-mirrors feeling. If I were a VC I would be a bit nervous. But then again, would you say that because we don’t have quantum computers, or hospitals using dna biotech, that we should abandon the research? Hardly. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mits-media-lab/506530/7 "2009-08-15T18:53:24Z")
> [@otorophile](#): > > I’m not sure anything from this lab (which has been around for about 2 decades, I think) has hit the market. ISTR seeing _one_ product come to market directly out of the lab–it was some alarm clock that was motorized or something so you’d have to get out of bed and chase it down to turn it off. ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mits-media-lab/506530/8 "2009-08-15T19:10:28Z")
Just as a point of interest, there’s a video on youtube of Pattie Maes (MIT media bod) presenting a projector that you wear that recognises various hand motions and integrates them into the net, has some absolutely stunning examples of how it could work in our lives-[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ-VjUKAsao](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ-VjUKAsao) I have no position on whether this represents a massive technology paradigm shift, or just grad students dicking around, but it’s undeniably cool and worth watching (takes a few minutes to get going - worth sticking with). ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mits-media-lab/506530/9 "2009-08-15T19:15:15Z")
MIT is actually one of the strongest schools in terms of technology commercialization. That’s not to say there isn’t more potential, though. This page highlights some of their successes from the Media Lab: [About Media Arts & Sciences — MIT Media Lab](http://admissions.media.mit.edu/admissions/facts-figures/resources-research) They also offer an entrepreneurship program: [About Media Arts & Sciences — MIT Media Lab](http://admissions.media.mit.edu/admissions/program-overview/entrepreneurship-program) ---
**Author:** ![otorophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3ab097/32.png) [@otorophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/otorophile)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mits-media-lab/506530/10 "2009-08-15T21:15:45Z")
> [@Hunter\_Hawk](#): > > ISTR seeing _one_ product come to market directly out of the lab–it was some alarm clock that was motorized or something so you’d have to get out of bed and chase it down to turn it off. I meant the lab I worked at, not the media lab.