How can two distant people feel connected?

Phone calls, or a SMS are technologies that connect people but in some way “interrupt” what the other one is currently doing. The Habitat project lets you keep in touch with the flow of your loved one’s daily life.

The author of the concept, Dipak Patel, is a researcher at Media Lab Europe in Dublin.
The demo of his project is made of two networked tables, equipped with radio tag readers, projectors and computers. These tables could be half a world apart. When an object—a plate or book, for example—is placed on one table, an image of that object appears on the second. When the object is removed its image turns grey, then gradually fades away. Just by glancing at your own table, you can get an idea of the ways in which your child/parent/partner has been using theirs.

Read also Wired.