MIT Media Lab will create storytelling center

(The above photo was taken from the MIT Media Lab's website.)

The MIT Media Laboratory today announced the creation of the Center for Future Storytelling, which aims to revolutionize how stories are told, from motion pictures to peer-to-peer multimedia sharing.

The center will be made possible "through a seven-year, $25-million commitment from Plymouth Rock Studios," the MIT Media Lab said.

The photo above this story shows David Kirkpatrick (left), chairman and executive managing officer of Plymouth Rock Studios; Nexi (center), a robot created at the media lab; and Frank Moss (right), the media lab's director.

Plymouth Rock Studios looks to build a $400-million film studio on a 240-acre golf course in Plymouth and hopes to have it operational by 2010.

Describing some of the hopes for the storytelling center, the MIT Media Lab said in a press release: "With the establishment of this center - whose research program begins immediately - the Media Lab and Plymouth Rock Studios will collaborate to revolutionize how we tell our stories, from major motion pictures to peer-to-peer multimedia sharing. By applying leading-edge technologies to make stories more interactive, improvisational, and social, researchers will seek to transform audiences into active participants in the storytelling process, bridging the real and virtual worlds, and allowing everyone to make their own unique stories with user-generated content on the Web. Center research will also focus on ways to revolutionize imaging and display technologies, including developing next-generation cameras and programmable studios, making movie production more versatile and economic."

The press release added: "Research will range from on-set motion capture to accurately and unobtrusively merge human performers and digital character models; to next-generation synthetic performer technologies, such as richly interactive, highly expressive robotic or animated characters; to cameras that will spawn entirely new visual art forms; to morphable movie studios, where one studio can be turned into many through advanced visual imaging techniques; to holographic TV. It will draw on technologies pioneered at the Media Lab, such as digital systems that understand people at an emotional level, or cameras capable of capturing the intent of the storyteller."

To read a story about the new center in today's New York Times, please click here.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)