The MIT labs are facing funding problems. But their backers don?t want another set of traditional research labs, Negroponte insists. "They don?t need us to do those things," he said. "They need us to be on the lunatic fringe -- a very interesting place to be, but you can go over the edge very quickly. It?s a very delicate line." He described Media Lab as a corporate "demilitarized zone" where companies that often compete in the real world can instead collaborate on ideas and intuitions. But the effervescent research labs, known for producing wearable computers, whole menageries of robots, digitized shoes and funky computerized musical instruments -- including a hypercello specially built for musician Yo-Yo Ma -- definitely are facing tough times, he said.
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