PLAY. “…this project explores interactive pillows as a means of enhancing long-distance communications. Through natural interaction with a pillow in one location, dynamic textile patterns are activated in a pillow located elsewhere.”
Swedish Interactive Institute
Smile to the hand. “A mock-up of a glove-type concept camera from Fuji Photo Film Co. was shown Sunday at the Future Creation Fair in Tokyo. The camera enables users to shoot still and moving images with finger signs.”
we make money not art
NHS GPs ‘to offer online booking’. “The programme, called EMIS Access, allows patients to view GPs’ timetables online and book or cancel appointments 24 hours a day.
It also allows patients to send confidential queries to their GP and to update their own contact details over the internet.”
BBC NEWS
UK girls use camera-phones to check their hair – poll. “20 percent of mobile users send snaps of themselves in new outfits to friends to see if they like them. 5 per cent take pictures of snappy dressers that they see on the high street to copy their style. 15 per cent frequently pull out their camera-phones to photograph the sides and backs of their hair…”
Smart Mobs
Seven-year-olds carrying mobile phones. “In 2002 only eight percent of [Norwegian] 7-9 year-olds had cell phones, a year later this number had doubled to one in six having mobiles. In the age group 10-11 years 58 percent use mobiles, up 12 percent points in a year.”
Smart Mobs
Wireless: Text messages come by the billions now. “Worldwide, more than 360 billion text messages are sent annually, according to one estimate by the GSM Association, a wireless trade body. That’s roughly one billion short messages each day – one for every six people on earth.”
IHT
Artemis conducts security patrol in Fukuoka“T63 Artemis shines lights and emits alarms if it spots any worrying activity, detects and memorizes car license plates it finds in the area, reports back wirelessly to security HQ and is armed with video cameras and several non-lethal offensive weapons such as a fluorescent paintball gun and the capability to spray a cloud of mist to temporarily blind the intruder.”
we make money not art
Decaying images via RSS. “I just signed up for the RSS Feed for the keyword “decay” on the Flickr image-sharing site. That means that my RSS aggregator gets a steady stream of photos tagged by their uploaders with the word “decay.”
Boing Boing
‘Insider’ info puts city blogs on the map. “Locally focused group “metro” blogs — compilations of events, reflections, recommendations, news and complaints — are emerging to put a number of big cities in intimate, street-level relief.”
CNN.com
The New York Times (may require subscription)
The New York Times (may require registration)
Secufone: The GPS security phone for grandparents. “Pushing the bright red alarm button connects the user with a call-center (admittedly not unlike the Lifeline), and then the GPS enables the call-center to precisely locate the in-trouble user. The device also has big ol’ easy-to-use buttons for universal design appeal and will be available in the US and Europe by the end of August.”
Engadget
Wireless Grids. “The article says that applications for wireless grids fall into three classes: the ones which aggregate information from the range of input/output interfaces found in nomadic devices, those which focus on the locations and contexts in which the devices exist, and those that leverage the mesh network capabilities of collections of nomadic devices.”
Smart Mobs
Made to Order – How industrial design became a weekend hobby. “But the Model T is old news. Nowadays, people want consumer goods to have serious aesthetic appeal. If they can’t find what they want in stores, they’ll build it themselves. You could call it “grass-roots industrial design.”
Slate
The Human Genome Interactive . “The Human Genome Interactive will introduce the visitor to the human genome, [...] and will reinforce the connections between understanding animals and understanding ourselves.”
davidsmall.com
Optware’s 1TB Holographic Versatile Disc. “Need we even resort to hyperbole to describe Optware’s new Holographic Versatile Disc, which is the same size and shape as a regular DVD but uses holograms to potentially store as much as one terabyte of data?”
Engadget
The typewriter that sends email. “The typewriter is an ordinary Olivetti “Lettera 22″ but electronics automatically sends the typed letter as an email to the intended person: through the use of various sensors concealed in the body, a small chip interprets all the mechanical operations of letter writing. When the letter is finished and the paper pulled out of the typewriter’s carriage, the email is sent via a telephone cable that fits into the back of the machine.”
we make money not art
Flashing pins on the notice board. “The Future Applications Lab teamed up with Lancaster University to develop a system of “intelligent push-pins” which communicate through and draw power from the surface to which they are attached.”
we make money not art
HAI Home Control for Windows Media Center. “HAI OmniPro home control via Windows Media Center Edition: lighting control, security, temperature control, macros, event log, and more.”
eHomeUpgrade
The ego visualizer. “Korean company Xenofreaks has created a mobile LED display, a disc-shaped device with a 2-inch LED display that can be worn armband style or around the neck. Dubbed “ego visualizer”, the PIX is designed to display emotions, opinions and information ot to search for icon matches on other people’s devices, and owners within range can infrared each other with images or text messages.”
we make money not art
Mapped pics of Tokyo. “Tokyo Picturesque (alpha version) is a site where people in Tokyo can attach pics taken with their GPS enabled mobile phone. The system then associates that image with the location on the map where it was taken.”
we make money not art
Arranged marriages go online in Kerala. “Putting a new age spin on the age-old custom of arranged marriages, a marriage bureau is out to prove that marriages are made in cyberspace now at the click of a mouse.”
India News Online
Full body games. “Full Body Games, by Jonah Warren (US), is a set of three video games where the player can affect the game’s action by using his or her body, free of wires and controllers.”
we make money not art
Find Lost Pets Fast!. “GlobalPetFinder is the world’s only satellite assisted pet location device that sends your pet’s location directly to your cell phone.”
Global Pet Finder
Shifting Places. “Sling Media, is about to launch the SlingBox Personal Broadcaster, an amazing little box that can redirect any video–such as a cable or broadcast feed–from your home to any screen you carry, as long as it has a wireless Internet connection.”
Yahoo!
e CyberTracker Field ComputerThe CyberTracker field computer makes it possible to gather large quantities of data at a level of detail that was not possible before. The field computer is designed to be quick and easy to use in the field, even by non-literate users. 
Cybertracker
Visa Toys With Credit Card Displays. “Visa International is experimenting with credit cards that include a small display screen where customers could view recent transactions, bank balances, or local currency exchange rates…”
PCWorld.com
Remail Introduction. “We are providing new and innovative uses of threads, collections of messages, sources of information, and visualizations to help users cope with their email.”
IBM
RSS gets down to business. “The RSSCalendar program allows users to convert and publish their calendar data as an RSS feed. Friends, co-workers and customers can subscribe to the calendar feed and automatically receive notices of new appointments, which can be viewed through an RSS reader or imported to a Web-based calendar or Microsoft Outlook.”
Globetechnology
CirculaFloor. “The movable floors employ holonomic mechanism that achieves omni-directional motion. Circulation of the floors enables the user to walk in virtual environment while his/her position is maintained. The user can walk in arbitrary direction in virtual environment.”
VRLab
Bluetooth flying bot creates buzz. “Weighing in at 12.3g, the FR-II is wireless, has Bluetooth and its own battery on board, unlike its precursor, and takes and sends images.”
BBC NEWS
DNA technique protects against ‘evil’ emails. “A technique originally designed to analyse DNA sequences is the latest weapon in the war against spam. An algorithm named Chung-Kwei (after a feng-shui talisman that protects the home against evil spirits) can catch nearly 97 per cent of spam.”
New Scientist
Nano-Storage Market to Reach $65.7 billion by 2011. “High-density, small footprint nanostorage technologies will enable a new generation of consumer devices, such as portable HDTV players, as well as new media formats based around holographic memory.”
NanoMarkets
The New York Times (may require subscription)
Japanese bank taps RFID for document security. “When combined with employee identification systems using cards or fingerprint sensors or tags, the RFID system could help enable real-time recording of which employees are removing or replacing which documents, whether authorized or not, from a filing cabinet or room.”
InfoWorld
Wireless sensor networks looking to Zigbee Alliance. “Imagine a golf course that can sense rainfall, and adjust the automatic sprinkler system to delay a scheduled watering session or focus on parts of the course that didn’t get as much rain as others. Or a hotel that can detect when a room is vacant, and turn off the heating or cooling systems in that room to save energy.”
InfoWorld
Want safer buildings? Use ‘smart’ bricks. “Several of the bricks embedded at different locations in a building could act as a kind of network, working together to provide a picture of the overall stability of the structure. This information would be vital to firefighters battling a blaze or to rescue workers determining the soundness of an earthquake-damaged structure.”
csmonitor.com
I, Doctor Robot. “The 200-pound robot is the star participant in a multihospital clinical trial to determine whether patients who have undergone certain types of surgery can be safely taken care of by a doctor in a different location.”
sacbee.com
Frame-by-frame underground ads. “Greater Boston subway riders will see a frame-by-frame animation ad from the windows of Red Line trains as they travel.”
we make money not art
Online Machine Shop. “Download our free software, draw your part, and click to order – it’s that easy! Your part will be machined and delivered. Even better, your cost is low due to the Internet, software, and automated machines.”
eMachineShop
The Vos Pad. “The ambience of The Vos Pad is controlled by the Lutron GRAFIK Integrale® custom-built computerised system that operates the lighting and other features. The level and colour of the lights in different areas can be changed instantly. The blinds are remote-controlled.”
Using the Organizr. “Organizr is a powerful tool that enables you to quickly find and edit your photos, create sets and add your photos to group pools.”
Flickr
iBoom. “Digital Lifestyle Outfitters has announced the iBoom, a 20-watts per channel, four-speaker boombox designed to holster the iPod and iPod mini.”
Gizmodo
Faster Wi-Fi Standard Unveiled. “WWiSE said that the technology can reach a maximum data-transmission rate of 135 Mbps in the minimum mandatory two-by-two configuration, with rates of up to 540 Mbps through a four-by-four MIMO structure and 40MHz channel width.
In comparison, most 802.11b Wi-Fi networks promise 11 Mbps and deliver about 4 or 5 Mbps…”
Yahoo! News
Watchful Portrait. “The portrait (Caroline) opens her eyes at dawn and tracks the sun. At dusk she closes her eyes. At this point the opposite portrait opens her eyes and tracks the moon all night.”
Johngerrard.net
Indian state rolls out wireless broadband. “India is among the fastest-growing wireless markets in the world, with nearly 39.5 million cell phone users. Companies are now beginning to address rural areas, where there are no legacy systems, with wireless systems that can support both telephony and Internet.”
ZDNet
QR Codes and Japanese Cellular Phones. “These codes are quite common in Japan and are often seen on flyers and magazine ads. Cellular phone users can scan the code with their built-in camera and immediately have all the contact info they need entered into their camera, sorted appropriately.”
Demo: Artificial Retina. “Rizzo conceived of a retinal prosthesis – an implant that would take a wireless signal from a video camera, bypass the light receptors, and stimulate the healthy nerve cells directly to feed the image to the brain.”
Technology Review
A computer created just for teens. “Of course, teens are infamously fickle, and today’s media-savvy kids are skilled at sniffing out and rejecting things that seem contrived. Today’s teens also grew up with computers and have sophisticated demands for them.
But the company behind the hip-e, Digital Lifestyles Group Inc. of Austin, Texas, believes it’s got exactly what teenage computer users want.”
MSNBC
Video games hit big screen. “Theater managers took four video projectors, set one up in each of four theaters with a Microsoft XBox video game system connected to it, and then let the fun begin for more than 60 people.”
MSNBC
. “Despite it’s inelegant name, the Vizoo is an amazing projection system that uses a transparent screen. Video from a standard projector appears to float within the environment creating exciting new opportunities for visual direction and demonstration using actors.”
core77
How Not to Replace 1000 Batteries. “They’ve built prototype batteries that use a speck of nickel-63 (a radioactive isotope) to vibrate a tiny cantilever. The cantilever could be made from a piece of piezoelectric material, which could supply power to the sensor. Nickel-63 has a half-life of around 100 years, so it could provide power for several decades.”
TheFeature
The Paper Napkin email rejection service. “Give them anyname@papernapkin.net (or paamail.com, to be less suspicious), tell them it’s your address, and when they write you, they’ll automatically get a response telling them how badly they’ve been rejected.”
Paper Napkin
metroblogging. “event listings to general rants, photos to reviews – metblogs are a hyper-local look at what’s going on in the city. a group of regional bloggers give each site a new perspective on daily life. less calendar listing, more friendly advice.”
metroblogging
‘Big Easy’ Hospital Goes Paperless. “At the end of this process, less than 5 percent of our documents are going to be scanned,” Dougherty said. “More than 95 percent of all documents will be generated electronically.”
EWeek
Digital Pens Help Doctors Speed Claims. “While Standard Register chose the Logitech pens for the first phase of the pilot, it will likely switch to pens from Nokia Corp. for a second phase that will involve testing a Bluetooth wireless version of the system, said company officials in Dayton, Ohio. A wireless process would eliminate the need to dock the pen and even allow doctors to file claims directly from a cell phone.”
EWeek
PC altar. “Some owners put their altars on USB memory sticks to take their altars with them and to have access everywhere they are.”
we make money not art
Live and On-Demand Medical Healthcasts. “Orthopaedics: Union Memorial Hospital, Baltimore, MD, presents a minimally invasive hip replacement surgery surgery on Thursday, September 16, 2004, at 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 UTC).”
OR-Live
The New York Times (may require registration)
TouchGraph AmazonBrowser V1.01. “The TouchGraph AmazonBrowser allows one to examine the graph of similar items at Amazon.com. Items are linked together by directed edges, with an edge from item A to item B indicating that people who buy A also buy B.”
TouchGraph
Spot-On Solution for Car Thefts. “As small as grains of sand, up to 10,000 DataDots are laser-etched with vehicle identification numbers and spray-glued on the engine and most other parts, making it very difficult to “re-birth” cars or sell cannibalized parts. The dots glow under a black light for easy spotting and can be read with a 30-power magnifying glass.”
Wired News
Internet arrives via rickshaw in India. “For 12-year-old Anju Sharma, hope for a better life arrives in her poor farming village three days a week on a bicycle rickshaw that carries a computer with a high-speed, wireless Internet connection.”
MSNBC
Chit Chat Club. “It is a real cafe, with real tables, real coffee and pastries. Yet the customers seated round the tables may be present physically or virtually — some of the chairs are ordinary seats, accommodating the human form; others are seats for avatars, equipped with monitors and network connections.”
MIT
Human Locator. “The Human Locator analyses a camera feed in real time, sending detailed information about people’s location, size, and movements. This data is then used as input to control projections, video, graphic animations, and sound.”
Freeset Interactive
Net Publishing Made Profitable. “The books are written by a small stable of independent authors, who receive 50 percent royalties, a rate unheard of in traditional publishing. Edited collaboratively over the Net, the books are published “within moments of going to press” as small, downloadable PDF files.”
Wired News
Nike permanently affixes goggles to Olympic swimmers’ eyes. “It’s not enough to have laser remove all your body hair and wear rubber band underwear anymore, now Nike wants you to use their latest drag-killing device, the strapless water goggles.”
Engadget
Phone It In. “But new software from High Energy Magic of Cambridge, England, turns a camera phone with a Bluetooth wireless connection into a portable mouse and keyboard that can take full command of public displays, doing away with the old touch screen.”
Technology Review
Sender ID gains traction. “Still in the proposal stage, Sender ID aims to provide a method for verifying an e-mail message’s source.”
InfoWorld
luminescent. “This project juxtaposes electricity and water in a raincoat that luminesces in response to droplets of rain. Embroidered water sensors act as inputs to a system with sealed electroluminescent panels that illuminate based on patterns of rain.”
MIT
Catholics E-Mail Prayers and Candles to Lourdes. “The Web site Croire.com — “croire” is the French verb for “believe” — is offering to add prayers it receives by e-mail to the intentions to be prayed for during the annual Lourdes pilgrimage the pope will attend on Saturday and Sunday.”
Reuters.com
V I S I P H O N E. “VisiPhone is a communication object that opens a graphical as well as an audio portal through space. It is designed to provide a continuous, ubiquitous connection between people in different places.”
MIT
Embedded Entertainment with Smart Projectors. “Smart projectors are able to display correct images onto arbitrary existing screen surfaces, like wallpapered walls or window curtains. Thus it can function without an artificial canvas and consequently leaves a bit more freedom to us in the decision on how to arrange our living space.”
Augmented Reality
Wiziway Wiziway Clicker and Tag. “The tag (symbol matrix standard that acts like a barcode) is software-generated into any file that will accept image formats and measures 3x3mm.”
BIOS
RFID ‘Lamps’ Map the Physical World. “Radio Frequency Identity and Geometry (RFIG) system consists of a hand-held projector that shines dynamic images onto physical objects of the user’s preference, and radio frequency identification tags augmented with photosensors, which identify objects for the projector.”
Technology Trends
Friends With Benefits. “The newest social networking services merge three powerful Web functions – auctioning, file-sharing, and friend-of-a-friend socializing – to build digital barter economies.”
Wired
Turn your memories into stamps “Use our simple design tools to easily edit and create your customized PhotoStamps.”
PhotoStamps
The New York Times (may require registration)
Bluetooth Umbrella Networks. “A team called “Umbrella.net” [] has developed a prototype system of Bluetooth umbrellas that facilitate “sudden, striking, and unexpected connections between people in public and urban space” by forming ad-hoc mesh networks when unfurled.”
Gizmodo
WalMart to roll out WiMax. “WalMart, the purveyor of all things middle-of-the-road is adding a surprising item to its menu. WiMax (basically long-range WiFi) base stations will supposedly be attached to all of WalMart’s numerous stores and bestow broadband internet access upon a good portion of the US.”
Engadget
Ito Ham to put QR codes on ham, for some reason. “…they will not only put the QR codes on their sausage and ham products, but they will also print QR codes on the packages of products intended to be gifts. The codes contain information to access “Overflowing with Happy Faces,” the company’s cellular phone page.”
TechJapan
Single Gold Atoms Altered. “This control could eventually lead to devices that work at the atomic scale, like a nonvolatile memory cell that stores information in a single atom.”
Technology Review
How blogs can cover Africa. “Blogalization is a new project that attempts to address the translation issue, by combining the efforts of multilingual bloggers into a single site. The logic behind the site: “if I have languages A and B and you have languages B and C, we can share memes across barriers of mutual incomprehension.”
Boing Boing
IBM Previews Future Collaboration Technologies. “Activity Explorer combines e-mail, chat and shared workspaces in one interface. Users can share a variety of work files with each other, which are defined as “collaborative objects.” This content can include shared e-mail messages, files, folders and screens and pervasive chat. Users simply drag and drop objects they want to collaborate on to the users on their contact list.”
EWeek
Ten things that Microsoft and TiVo must each do to win the living room. “Below are my suggestions for the top 10 things Microsoft and TiVo must each do to win the battle for the living room.”
engadget
The Esperanto of money. “…the world trades about $1.2 trillion worth of currencies a day. If that market disappeared, it would save companies and individuals hundreds of billions of dollars a year in foreign-exchange and hedging costs.”
csmonitor.com
Cell phone melds video and data. “The cell phone system inserts computer-generated three-dimensional models into real-time video shown on the cell phone’s display and aligns the models with physical markers in the camera’s field of view.”
TRN
Instant Messaging Graduates To Workgroup Collaboration Tool. “Because the software maintains an archive of group communications, you don’t miss out on information that is shared while you are not logged in or otherwise unavailable.”
RG News
Higher waste collection bills loom with green ‘stealth tax’. “Experts, however, say that dustbins can be fitted with electronic tags that can be read by a machine attached to the dustcart. The machine can identify the bin, weigh it and add a charge to the owner’s bill. “
The Times
Welcome to MyPostie. “A TOUCHSCREEN kiosk to bridge the gap between physical mail and email, helping older people to communicate electronically, is being tested at a Victorian retirement village. MyPostie allows people to write a letter and scan it at a purpose-built kiosk, and the letter is then delivered as web mail.”
MyPostie
Locusts Inspire Technology That May Prevent Car Crashes. “To date, the team has built a locust-inspired, collision-avoiding robot and is currently developing crash-avoidance circuitry for a model car. In a few years Volvo may have a prototype. By the end of the decade cars equipped with the locust-inspired technology could be on the showroom floor.”
National Geographic
Celpay. “Celpay is simple – it’s like having a bank account that you control via your cell phone. Even if you don’t have a bank account now, it’s easy to open a Celpay account.”
Celpay
Ultra Wideband Wireless Peripherals by Year’s End?. “Initially, the technology will likely be used to transmit high-definition video signals, Adams said, followed by wireless connections between external media servers and hard drives.”
EWeek
Chip shot: Using RFID to find stray balls. “Radar Golf helps players find balls embedded with radio frequency identification chips. RFID chips emit a radio signal that can be tracked with a scanner.”
MercuryNews.com
Technology pushes women to the edge. “The survey revealed that mobile phones and email are just one more thing busy working mothers have to juggle, and make life more hectic, not less so.”
The Register
EP Dev Kit. “The Electronic Perception Development Kit (“EP DevKit”) includes everything you need to develop and prototype computer vision applications.”
Canesta, Inc.
RSS feeds of keyword-tagged photos. “…every tag automatically gets an RSS feed, so that you can watch all the photos tagged with “cuba” or “outdoor” or “red” in your RSS reader, getting alerts every time a new one comes along.”
Boing Boing:
Install Big Brother in the car and get insurance discountThose drivers who go over Minnesota’s 75 mph speed limit less than 0.1 percent of the time will get a 5 percent discount. Those who avoid driving at the most dangerous time — between midnight and 4 a.m. on weekends, also get a discount”.
we make money not art
You are currently browsing the rb.trends weblog archives for the month August, 2004.
They are also available as an RSS feed.
