Residence Boston Website ditto.us.com | Occupation CEO Ditto Labs Name David Rose | |
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Years active Sep 1, 2012 - Current (over 2 years) | ||
David L. Rose (born February 19, 1967) is an American business executive and a scientist and lecturer at the MIT Media Lab. His research focuses on computer-human interfaces, and he has invented and patented online photo sharing. He has also designed a number of wireless products, including the Ambient Orb and the GlowCap. He is currently the CEO of start-up Ditto Labs.
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Early life
David Rose was born on February 19, 1967 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina when his father, James Rose, was in medical school.
Rose graduated from Madison West High School in Madison, Wisconsin in 1985. He obtained a BA in Physics and Fine Arts from St. Olaf College in 1989. He then went on to earn his Masters from Harvard University, focusing on technology in education, graduating in 1992.
Rose lives in Brookline, Massachusetts with his wife and two children.
Career
Rose founded the company Interactive Factory in 1992 following several years working as a software engineer in speech recognition and robotics. Interactive Factory, now iFactory, a division of RDW Group, is a boutique design firm specializing in digital and interactive media.
After Interactive Factory’s acquisition in 1997, Rose patented the first online photo sharing service and founded Opholio. The start-up was bought by Flashpoint Technology in 1998 and Rose went on to found Viant’s Innovation Center, where he was director for four years.
In 2002, Rose co-founded Ambient Devices, a spin-off from the MIT Media Lab and a pioneer in embedding Internet information in everyday objects. The Ambient Orb was one of Rose’s creations and a revolutionary ubiquitous computing device, providing real-time data to a user via a simple, color-changing interface. Under his leadership, the company developed over a dozen internet-connected objects including the Ambient Umbrella, the Ambient Dashboard, 5-day Weather Forecaster, and the Energy Joule.
In 2008, Rose founded Vitality, a high-tech healthcare start-up. At Vitality, he conceived of and led the development of the GlowCap – the first cellular-connected pill cap. The product was a recipient of the 2010 Medical Design Excellence Awards and continues to be cited for its success in patient compliance. The GlowCap was parodied on The Colbert Report and featured in the Talk to Me exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Vitality was sold to billionaire biotech investor Patrick Soon-Shiong in 2011 and rolled into his NantHealth business.
Recent work
Rose is currently CEO of Ditto Labs, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based start-up the focuses on image-recognition software. He is a scientist and lecturer at the MIT Media Lab as part of the Tangible Media Group.
In August 2014, it was announced that Ditto Labs would form a deal with Tumblr. "Right now, we're not planning to do anything ad-related," stated T.R. Newcomb, head of business development at Tumblr. Ditto's data will be available to advertisers who want to see how they are perceived on the platform.
In July 2014, Rose published a book about the Internet of Things, Enchanted Objects: Design, Human Desire, and the Internet of Things. In the book, Rose argues that the cell phone monopolizes attention and that there is an opportunity to unglue society from these screens by spreading apps into every day objects like clothing, jewelry, and rooms.