Realtalk is an environment for authoring and working with dynamic media. Unlike most such systems, in which people engage with virtual objects rendered on a screen or headset, Realtalk objects are ordinary physical objects, interpreted and “given life” by technology built into the room.
One goal is to achieve the interpersonal dynamics of people present in the real world - people physically working together, learning from one another, thinking with their bodies and hands, seeing everything at once. Consider the vastly different dynamics of a communal woodshop or kitchen, versus a typical computing environment.
The other goal is to enable powerful new forms of seeing, discussing, and understanding - “thinking the unthinkable” - by taking advantage of the myriad properties of the real world which aren’t provided by renderings. Beyond a “Dynabook”, we seek a “Dyna-Exploratorium”.