On line complaints
February 27th, 2008 by rbanks
Site helps you find rotten neighbors
“RottenNeighbor.com lets you add “rotten neighbors” to a Google map. I see nothing but trouble coming from this.”
Boing Boing
Archive for February, 2008
Universal frame
February 27th, 2008 by rbanks
Window To The World
“Just frame anything you desire behind the glass window, from a building, to a car or piece of art and the image will be analyzed and searched on any number of sites like wikipedia, google or google earth. Want to know about a word in a book or magazine? Simply frame it up and touch the word. Instant access to any number of learning aids eg. dictionary, thesaurus or reference databases will have you clued in in seconds.”
Yanko Design
Real/virtual games
February 27th, 2008 by rbanks
Giant real-world game of Risk played on college campuses
“Some friends started an awesome company that’s all about making a real-world version of Risk, where they cut up college campuses into territories, and folks need to coordinate offline & online to take over the map over a few days.”
Boing Boing
Digital tattoo (concept)
February 27th, 2008 by rbanks
Digital tattoo enables arm-based conversations, constant health monitoring
“Dreamed up by Jim Mielke, this minuscule, implantable display would reportedly connect to an artery and a vein for its power and could display caller ID information as well as video chats right on one’s arm. Best of all, this thing won’t become the source of all kinds of regret when you head over the hill, as it could also be used to constantly monitor certain aspects of your health and give you a heads-up if anything goes awry.”
Engadget
Cubic password (concept)
February 26th, 2008 by rbanks
Color Security
“This Color Cube allows the user to create their own color combination in lieu of the usual text based password. Whenever you need to verify your identity, just solve your rubik’s cube. The color combinations are endless since you can even embed little pictures within each tiny screen. Take it a step further and make it a time based entry – solve the cube before time runs out and the colors change”
Yanko Design
Glass phone
February 26th, 2008 by rbanks
Trendy People Need This Phone
“To answer an incoming call, slide the glass keyboard out. An embedded LED illuminates the etched numerics via refraction creating a glowing effect. The only visible lines is the microphone wiring which designer Chris Owens has cleverly disguised as a keyboard border.”
Yanko Design
3D cameras
February 26th, 2008 by rbanks
New 3D camera chip design might put Adobe on guard
“By using a 3-megapixel sensor which is broken into multiple, overlapping 16 x 16-pixel squares (referred to as subarrays), a camera is capable of capturing a variety of angles in one frame. When the images taken by the multi-aperture device are processed by proprietary software, location differences are measured from each mini-lens, and then combined into a photograph containing a depth map.”
Engadget
Cute RFID
February 26th, 2008 by rbanks
RFID and unique physical form · Touch
“The forms are generated with a small piece of front end software, with partial control from the user (for example, there is a cuteness<->grossness slider, and they can specify the number of eyes, but the form is also linked to their age and other friends/family in the system, etc). It pulls from sticker/graffiti culture, urban toy culture, and also heraldry (allows for the visual expression of human relationships and room for a visual subculture to emerge in the system).”
Touch
Alertness
February 26th, 2008 by rbanks
Prosthesis for a lost instinct
“The human animal has lost its natural instinct for the real dangers. When worn directly on your skin, the Alertness Enhancing Device will act as a physical prosthesis for a lost natural instinct of the real fears and dangers that threaten us – as opposed to perceived risks that often cause a public outrage. The idea is it stimulates goosebumps and shivers that go down your spine and make your neck hair stand up, waking up the alert animal inside. You become more alert and ready for the real dangers in life.”
we make money not art
Gravity power
February 26th, 2008 by rbanks
The gravity powered floor lamp
“The column contains five ten-pound brass weights that rest on a sled; when set in place by the user, they drift to the bottom of the lamp over the course of four hours. A high efficiency ball-screw converts the downward motion into torque, which is used to power a rotor. The rotor, housed in the base of the lamp, powers the light. The LEDs are activated only a few seconds after the process begins, and the entire operation is silent.”
Gizmag
Girls creating online content
February 26th, 2008 by rbanks
Sorry, Boys, This Is Our Domain
“The “girls rule” trend in content creation has been percolating for a few years — a Pew study published in 2005 also found that teenage girls were the primary content creators — but the gender gap for blogging, in particular, has widened. As teenage bloggers nearly doubled from 2004 to 2006, almost all the growth was because of “the increased activity of girls,” the Pew report said. The findings have implications beyond blogging, according to Pew, because bloggers are “much more likely to engage in other content-creating activities than nonblogging teens.”
New York Times
Mind games
February 25th, 2008 by rbanks
Emotiv to make mind-controlled games a reality by Christmas
“Now Emotiv Systems returns with an update to their Project Epoch USB headset. Crave went hands-on with the system which required a short, six-second calibration before entering the first “game.” At that point, Crave was able manipulate a simple cube on the screen with varied success at making it disappear or pull forward. Oooh, what fun!”
Engadget
Virtual walks
February 25th, 2008 by rbanks
Pedometer with digital map
“The tiny (14×42×78mm) pedometer counts the total distance around Japan from the starting point you enter. As you make your way through the 18,880 km journey (11,731 miles), you can zoom in and get information about 1,258 local sights, history, and products. Kind of like a Wikipedometer for city walkers. the whole point is to be able to “travel around Japan” by commuting to work, a task that would take you about fifty years at a single kilometer per day.“
Pasta&Vinegar
Watch kit
February 25th, 2008 by rbanks
LED POV wristwatch kit
“With two time display options (Binary and wave-it-in-the-air POV display) and a super-bright flashlight mode, this watch is sure to turn some heads. Buy as a chip only, a kit to assemble yourself, a preassembled board, or a complete watch.”
Boing Boing
Movement mapping
February 25th, 2008 by rbanks
Movement Map: 1hr in Front of the TV
“I used a marked-out equally-spaced grid in masking tape and filmed them moving via video across the grid for an hour. I then reviewed the video and plotted their movements on each minute of the video’s timecode onto a ‘room map’ with corresponsing grid.”
Flickr
ePaper uses
February 25th, 2008 by rbanks
Paper Scale
“The ultra thin flexible scale combines a pressure sensing sheet that relays information to an e-paper display. It’s waterproof, easy to clean, and can be rolled up for storage.”
Yanko Design
Creativity games
February 25th, 2008 by rbanks
Release your inner sleeve designer
“It’s a simple game: 1. The first article title on this randomly generated Wikipedia page is the name of your band. 2. The last four words of the very last quote from this random page from quotationspage.com is the title of your album. 3. The third picture on this page, Flickr’s list of interesting pictures from the past seven days, is your album cover. “
CR Blog
Photo displays
February 25th, 2008 by rbanks
The last product Polaroid should make
“The bottom portion of the frame features a dry erase surface, so you can write your own title for your slideshow by hand, using a dry erase marker. Because sometimes it’s nice to preserve at least a little bit of the old way of doing things.”
Ironic Sans
Sense phone (concept)
February 25th, 2008 by rbanks
The sense of smell in interaction design
“The phone uses the human senses of sight, sound, touch and even smell for an ultimate multi-sensory experience. It could detect, transmit and emit smells, as well as radiate colors, lighting, and temperature from the caller’s environment. Its electronic nose works with highly sophisticated (i.e. unknown) sensors. The nose samples the odor of the caller’s environment and transmits this to the recipient electronically.”
Architectradure
Remote control
February 25th, 2008 by rbanks
Cars: Webasto Heater is Activated by SMS, Pre-Heats Your Ride
“the Webasto Thermo Top E Parking Heater allows users to send a text message to a car where it is installed, which then kicks it into action, ensuring your car is warm to the touch when you get in. The self-contained unit uses a tiny amount of fuel, and can also be activated by voice or remote control.”
Gizmodo
Standing interactions
February 25th, 2008 by rbanks
Wizkid: a computer with a neck
“Wizkid is a novel kind of computer permitting easy multi-user standing interactions in various contexts of use. The interaction system does not make use of classical input tools like keyboard, mouse or remote control, but features instead a gesture-based augmented reality interaction environment, in conjunction with the optional use of convivial everyday objects like books, cards and other small objects.“
Pasta&Vinegar
Sharing sensor data
February 25th, 2008 by rbanks
SensorBase | Sharing is Caring
“Similar to blogs, SensorBase provides an easy way to log sensor data, or rather, slog. We can think of sensor data as anything from numeric values to images, audio, and video. SensorBase allows you to slog these types of data both manually and automatically”
SensorBase
Sharing moods
February 25th, 2008 by rbanks
morale-o-meter mood graphs
“the morale-o-meter free embeddable web application provides an opportunity to continuously track & log numerical morale indicators (i.e. morale, health, sleep, alcohol, caffeine), visualize them as bar graphs, & compare the results with friends, or embed them in blogs or web sites.”
information aesthetics
RFID gaming
February 25th, 2008 by rbanks
Swinxs lures your children outside, tricks them into “moving around”
“The kids wear RFID wrist bracelets that identify them in the game, and let them interact with the machine. We heard, from a reliable source, that if kids engage in this type of “running around” in “grassy areas” they very well may die, but that’s all hearsay. Once kids grow tired of the included games they can download and install more over USB, and there’s a free SDK for developers to create new entertainment for Swinxs.”
Engadget
Sharing my route – live
February 25th, 2008 by rbanks
Map My Tracks: Live GPS map creation, and sharing on the way
“I like this app because while lots of online/GPS mashups will pinpoint where a mobile phone is, they don’t always show a track, something which creates a bunch of possibilities, like map sharing. Your progress is tracked live or can be replayed later and displays distance, top speed, average speed, direction, and current location. You can see runners, cyclists and skiers really going for this kind of site.”
TechCrunch UK
Displays everywhere
February 22nd, 2008 by rbanks
LED displays keep folks guessing at nightclub bathrooms
“The small LED Matrix displays can be mounted on both male and female doors, and the image shown can be switched as folks enter and leave. Needless to say, such a setup caused quite a bit of hilariousness / confusion when caught on candid camera”
Engadget
Phone usage
February 22nd, 2008 by rbanks
How the Chinese use their cell phones
“Some 34.8 percent reported they listened to mobile music every month compared with 20 percent in Spain, 18.9 percent in Britain and 5.7 percent in the United States” “Compared with users in the United States and Europe, Chinese consumers use their phones much less to check on their email or to send photos and videos…Over 30 percent in Italy, Spain and Britain use their phones to send or receive photos and videos, and only half as many do so in China.”
Smart Mobs
Long distance relationships
February 22nd, 2008 by rbanks
Love Tech Goes Long Distance
“The most recent U.S. Census in 2006 showed that about 3.8 million Americans are in commuter marriages, a 30% increase since 2000. And one driver of that trend, says Gregory Guldner, director of the Center for the Study of Long Distance Relationships, is the perception that technology reduces the emotional separation of distance.”
Forbes.com
Location tags
February 22nd, 2008 by rbanks
Extended Environments Markup Language: EEML
“This site provides information about Extended Environments Markup Language (EEML), a protocol for sharing sensor data between remote responsive environments, both physical and virtual. It can be used to facilitate direct connections between any two environments; it can also be used to facilitate many-to-many connections as implemented by the web service Pachube, which enables people to tag and share real time sensor data from objects, devices and spaces around the world. Possible end-users range from construction managers, large-building occupants and architects, to electronics manufacturers and interactive artists and designers.”
EEML
Commitments
February 22nd, 2008 by rbanks
stickK Allows You To Put A Contract On Yourself
“stickK
is designed to promote a healthier lifestyle by allowing users to create “Commitment Contracts” that oblige them to follow through with commitments such as exercise and quitting smoking. [...] Taking out a commitment contract though doesn’t mean a thing unless there is a penalty for breaking the contract, and stickK covers that as well. Users can set up a contract to include payments to charities if they fail to meet their contracts, and friends can be used to make the final call on the result as well, reducing the chance that users will lie about the result of a contract”
TechCrunch
RFID food tracking (concept)
February 20th, 2008 by rbanks
Senior Screen Saver
“This two-piece monitoring station attaches to any refrigerator and features a detachable RFID reader for trips to the local market, as well as a touch display base with easy to recognize universal icons. Other features include a memo pad and voice recorder for leaving really long messages that will probably be ignored.”
Yanko Design
Health monitoring (concept)
February 20th, 2008 by rbanks
Design: Aura Health Concept Device Drags Hippies Into the 22nd Century
“First thing in the morning, the user pauses to look into the central component of the Aura, a vessel reminiscent of a Tibetan singing bowl. A camera detects his face; motion-capture systems recognize his expression; and software scans the general color of his skin, his eyeballs, the contraction of the pupils, and the reflectivity of the face. He is prompted to repeat a certain word or hum a particular tune – and as the volume and dynamics of his voice are detected and analyzed for mood, microscopic drops of saliva are captured and examined for bacteria, salinity, and other health indicators.”
Gizmodo
3D scanning
February 20th, 2008 by rbanks
Handheld 3D scanner
“The EXAscan is a handheld 3D laser scanner small enough to fit in a carry-on size suitcase. It uses 3 high resolution cameras in conjunction with a self-positioning target system alleviating any need for external tracking devices during scanning.”
MAKE
Dynamic bandwidth
February 20th, 2008 by rbanks
Bandwidth on Demand
“a researcher wanting to test telesurgery technologies–for which a smooth, reliable Internet connection is essential–might use the network to temporarily create a dedicated path for the experiment. Called the dynamic circuit network, its immediate applications are academic, but its underlying technologies could one day filter into the commercial Internet, and it could be used, for example, to carry high-definition video to consumers.”
Technology Review
Electricity generating clothes
February 20th, 2008 by rbanks
Microfiber fabric makes its own electricity?
“The nanogenerator takes advantage of the semiconductive properties of zinc oxide nanowires — tiny wires 1,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair — embedded into the fabric. The wires are formed into pairs of microscopic brush-like structures, shaped like a baby-bottle brush.One of the fibers in each pair is coated with gold and serves as an electrode. As the bristles brush together through a person’s body movement, the wires convert the mechanical motion into electricity.”
Reuters
Building phones to order
February 20th, 2008 by rbanks
zzzphone
“Phones are custom-built and shipped directly to the customer from a factory near Shenzhen, China. Prices start at USD 149 for the basic unit, which is available in a range of colours. Customers can tweak to their heart’s delight, adding a camera (up to 7 megapixels), GPS, flashlight, stereo speakers, software, a touch screen, upgrading processors and boosting internal memory up to 4 GB. Another nifty feature, and one that most network-bound phones don’t offer, is the option of two SIM card slots, enabling buyers to use two phone numbers or accounts on one phone.”
Springwise
Recycled electronics
February 20th, 2008 by rbanks
Nokia’s “Remade” concept is all waste — no, seriously
“The case and keypad are fashioned from tossed cans, for example, and apparently, even the electrical components (never mind that the Remade can’t actually place a call in its current incarnation) are entirely reused. No plans have been revealed to produce the Remade or anything quite like it, but the way Nokia’s going — and the way we’re throwing away tin cans — we wouldn’t be surprised if it happened down the road.”
Engadget
Rain power
February 20th, 2008 by rbanks
Vibrating raindrops may power our homes
“The technology could work in industrial air conditioning systems, where water condenses and drops like rain.It could also be used with solar power to scavenge as much energy from the environment as possible, or to power tiny, wireless sensors designed to monitor environmental conditions.”
ABC Science Online
Tracking animals
February 20th, 2008 by rbanks
World’s biggest fish gets a black-box flight recorder
“Wilson says his logger, which weighs only 30-48 grams, is like an aircraft black-box flight recorder that monitors changes in speed, altitude and heading. At its heart is a tiny electronic device that measures changes in an animal’s acceleration in every direction – forward/back, up/down or sideways. This accelerometer measures motion along all three axes up to 32 times a second, and, combined with a compass, determines the animal’s speed, direction and position. It can do many things that widely-used animal tracking systems using GPS (Global Positioning System) cannot, such as operate in dense forest, underground or in the ocean.”
Gizmag
Cellphone sleeves
February 20th, 2008 by rbanks
Hands-on with modu: it’s real and plenty fantastic
“The possibilities are endless for branding, as new modu jackets take almost no time to develop and each jacket can even have its own theme that’s loaded, translator content, when you pop the modu in. We saw a pile of prototype ideas, including travel guides, a pocket PC version — this was way cool — iPod-esque dock with text message display, and a bevy of others.”
Engadget
Digital writing (concept)
February 19th, 2008 by rbanks
SMS And Email Pen
“D:Scribe is a digital fountain pen that allows users to send SMS and email messages from paper. Just write out the message and circle the person’s name to send. This does away with a keypad and allows you to focus on communicating in a more personal way from anywhere as long as you have a bluetooth enabled phone and a surface to write on.”
Yanko Design
Navigating by lights
February 19th, 2008 by rbanks
Lighting Ballasts That Direct Patients
“Researchers are developing a high-resolution tracking system that uses PDAs and audio directions to guide patients around hospital wards. The system also helps rehabilitate those with traumatic brain injuries. The system, which is made by Boston startup Talking Lights, uses light fixtures as beacons to send information to a PDA via an optical receiver. The PDA is also loaded with mapping software, information about the building, and user-specific data such as appointment schedules.”
Technology Review
Digital checks
February 10th, 2008 by rbanks
Scanning Your Money to the Bank
“Fiserv, the big transaction services company, has announced new software that will enable banks to let home users deposit checks by scanning them. It already has a similar service for small and medium businesses. USAA, the financial services company that serves the military, has offered deposits through scanners for two years, but the idea has not yet caught on.”
New York Times Blog
Unexpected displays
February 10th, 2008 by rbanks
Computer and Coffee On The Go
“Everyone has their own routine, what they read, watch, listen to, and of course drink. The Yuno PC mug incorporates all the important morning alerts such as weather, time, traffic, stocks, and more on its touchscreen display. You can also display your own images as a screensaver if you just want to relax.”
Yanko Design
Home monitoring
February 10th, 2008 by rbanks
The Telepresence Frame beams your vital stats home
“Called the Telepresence Frame, the device gathers information generated by heart monitors and the like, and sends them to a display in the home of loved ones, so that they can constantly be kept aware of one’s condition. If (or when) the patient dies, the box records up until the final moments, then plays back its collected information in a continuous loop.”
Engadget
Power control (concept)
February 10th, 2008 by rbanks
Best iPhone App Ever: Current State Makes You Mini-Captain Planet
“behind its glowing, sexy UI, it’s a real-time power management app that monitors consumption and lets you play with your power from anywhere. Devices are jacked in through plug-ends that bridge the plug and power socket, and after you sync everything, you can turn gear off and on or activate shutdown timers remotely”
Gizmodo
Generating power
February 10th, 2008 by rbanks
Knee Power
“A team of engineers has developed a modified knee brace that captures energy that would otherwise have been lost while the wearer walks. The generator produces about five watts–enough to power 10 cell phones simultaneously.”
Technology Review
Modular phone
February 10th, 2008 by rbanks
Modu Revealed
“You can think of Modu as an expanded SIM card. It can make a call, send text messages, and hold a contact list—the bare minimum required to be a mobile phone. That is why it is so small—about the size of an iPod Nano. Consumers will be able to carry it around and stick it into different device jackets, depending on the functionality they want. In a camera, for instance, Modu can be used to send pictures over the wireless network. (Although, it will initially only support GPRS, which is slow. Another drawback—there is no WiFi.) The jacket devices should cost less than comparable gadgets with telephony functionality, and the idea is to create an accessory mini-economy around the Modu, so that any device manufacturer could create whatever jackets they like.”
TechCrunch
Energy generation
February 10th, 2008 by rbanks
Generate Energy with Fluxxlab’s ‘Revolution’ Revolving Door
“At its core, it contains three parts – a redesigned central core replacing that of any existing or new revolving door, a mechanical/electrical system that harnesses human energy and redistributes electricity to an output, and an output device that maps the harnessed energy. The revolving doors in large office buildings are always in use at any given moment during the day and by capturing that kinetic energy this project can provide free electricity to the installation site.”
Inhabitat
Seeing into things
February 9th, 2008 by rbanks
Vein Viewer
“The VeinViewer by Luminetx™ uses a combination of near-infrared light and patented technologies to image vascular structures, thus allowing physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals to clearly see accessible vasculature (or lack thereof) in real time, directly on the surface of the skin. The near-IR camera located the subcutaneous veins and project their location onto the surface of the skin.”
Architectradure
Tracking tools
February 9th, 2008 by rbanks
Ford truck with RFID tool tracker
“Developed with DeWalt and ThingMagic, the Tool Link system comes with a bunch of wireless RFID tags that you attach to your gear. An in-dash display will then show what’s in your truck so you can tell right away if someone snagged your hammer, or, hopefully, you just left it at the job site.”
Boing Boing
Traffic visualization
February 9th, 2008 by rbanks
Visualizar workshop: Cascade on Wheels – we make money not art
“In our Walls Map piece, streets are raised in space relatively to their traffic. Seen from the top it is a flat 2D street map, but once the angle is tilted and the view enters 3D, shapes like walls are revealed, holding additional data on their sides: the proportions of car types. By rotating the model or tilting the angle it’s quite easy to explore the data, see where most traffic concentrates, how it branches out, or which streets have many buses and which don’t.”
we make money not art
Cellphone glove
February 9th, 2008 by rbanks
Bluetooth Glove: G-Cell Communication Glove Uses Bluetooth, Talk-To-The-Hand Technology
“The design, with its integrated microphone, speaker and a couple of buttons to make calls, is clearly aimed at winter sports enthusiasts. Here’s what the G-Cell has got: Bluetooth 2.0-compatible, there’s a voice dialling system, vibrate and visual alarm modes. Standby is 240 hours, and you get 48 hours’ talk time. Running on a rechargeable Li-Ion battery, the G-Cell—which is, of course, waterproof—is currently merely at the development stage, but here’s hoping it goes into production.”
Gizmodo
ePaper uses (concept)
February 9th, 2008 by rbanks
Musicians Gettin’ High Tech
“This single flexible screen can be unrolled and feed sheet music via bluetooth from a computer. Best part is the included foot peddle which virtually turns the pages”
Yanko Design
Motion control
February 9th, 2008 by rbanks
KEYnetik Motion Input: carpal tunnel in a convenient handheld prototype!
“KEYnetik’s prototype triangulates the input from multiple accelerometers inside this shiny beast, but the end result is one of the most painful looking methods of navigating a phone, PDA or gaming device that we’ve seen in a long time.”
Engadget
Charging points (concept)
February 9th, 2008 by rbanks
Charger Speaker: MCube Concept is a Wireless Charger and Display Companion For Cellphones
“Drop your phone near the MCube concept and it charges via short-range induction. There’s a Bluetooth link, which means SMS and caller info get shown on its Cocoon-like hidden display. Meanwhile, calls and MP3s stored on your phone can be played through MCube’s speakers and controlled by touch pads on its surface.”
Gizmodo
SMS security
February 8th, 2008 by rbanks
Use Sms to Unlock Public Toilets in Finland
“The toilets have been secured, and a sign outside explains that the user just sends the word “open” (in Finish) to a short code and the door will be unlocked remotely. The company managing the service will keep a short term record of all users phone numbers, simply so that if the toilet is then damaged by criminals, they can be traced by the police. There is no premium charge for the SMS.”
cellular-news.com
Molecular storage
February 8th, 2008 by rbanks
A Memory Breakthrough
“Phase-change memory differs from other solid-state memory technologies such as flash and random-access memory because it doesn’t use electrons to store data. Instead, it relies on the material’s own arrangement of atoms, known as its physical state. Previously, phase-change memory was designed to take advantage of only two states: one in which atoms are loosely organized (amorphous), and another where they are rigidly structured (crystalline). But in a paper presented at the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco, researchers illustrated that there are two more distinct states that fall between amorphous and crystalline, and that these states can be used to store data.”
Technology Reviewgh
Pointing interface
February 7th, 2008 by rbanks
Elliptic Labs shows off touchless interface for 3D navigation
“Dubbed a “touchless human / machine user interface for 3D navigation,” the firm has somehow figured out how to allow mere mortals to manipulate on-screen images without requiring any sort of funky gloves to be worn or a microchip to be installed in your fingertip.”
Engadget
Cellphone concepts
February 7th, 2008 by rbanks
Concepts: Design Competition Brings Artistic Elegance to Cellphone Concepts
“Those arty chaps at the Royal College of Art have created some great looking mobile phone concepts. The designs were put together for a competition that was sponsored by the cellular network 3. The runners-up included the Vase phone, which begins as an empty “vessel,” but has features added to it gradually, according to the user’s needs. The Teiko cellphone was designed for children, incorporating GPS for parental tracking and a rugged general construction.”
Gizmodo
Energy efficiencies in solar panels
February 7th, 2008 by rbanks
Solar Energy: Foldable Solar Panels Could Be Up To 80% Efficient
“Researchers at the Idaho National Laboratory have designed a lightweight, foldable solar panel design which they predict will function at 80% efficiency (the best solar panel prototypes operate at about 40%). The researchers’ secret is the implementation of nanoantennas, which have the ability to absorb not only light, but heat from the sun as well.”
Gizmodo
Paired clothing
February 6th, 2008 by rbanks
Dynamic Life shirt clearly shows you’re taken by a fellow nerd
“This wonderful piece of garb, which is obviously designed to be purchased in pairs, sports six whole hearts on the chest. When your lover strays, both sets of hearts slowly fade away, but when he / she comes running back for one more steamy round of Wii Boxing, the combined dozen lights up to signify precisely how geeky you two truly are.”
Engadget
Social-centric search
February 6th, 2008 by rbanks
Social Search
“He explains that a person begins a search at Delver by typing in her name. Delver then crawls social-networking websites for widely available data about the user–such as a public LinkedIn profile–and builds a network of associated institutions and individuals based on that information. When the user enters a search query, results related to, produced by, or tagged by members of her social network are given priority. Lower down are results from people implicitly connected to the user, such as those relating to friends of friends, or people who attended the same college as the user.”
Technology Review
Cellphone watch
February 6th, 2008 by rbanks
Cellwatch M500 wrist-watch phone
“The latest example to cross the Gizmag desk, and one of the most impressively designed and specced units we’ve seen to date is the Cellwatch M500. Billed as the world’s smallest mobile watch, the M500 incorporates a 1.5-inch (128×160) color OLED touchscreen, 128 MB Memory, 80 hours standby time, plus web-browsing, Bluetooth, MP3 and video playback capabilities.”
Gizmodo
Physical charting
February 6th, 2008 by rbanks
physical bar graph table
“a physical bar graph integrated in a coffee table, which visualizes the changes of one’s web identity over time, & creates a physical link between your virtual & real identity.”
information aesthetics
Figuring out coordinates online
February 6th, 2008 by rbanks
Geotate wants to geotag the world
“every time the shutter is triggered, the camera’s memory card briefly captures the raw data from the GPS radio, associating it with each photo. Then, once the pictures have been imported into Geotate’s proprietary client, auxiliary location data is downloaded from a central server, which is then synthesized with the camera data using local resources to establish actual coordinates. What’s more, the Geotate software hooks in to Wikipedia as well as the popular mapping and photo-sharing services, giving you real-world information about your shots while also allowing you to map them out and upload to Flickr, Picasa, and friends.”
Engadget
Hardware subscriptions
February 5th, 2008 by rbanks
Leica M8: A Camera for Life
“Instead of dropping an M9 or M10, Leica is offering substantial upgrades to the M8 itself—mechanical and digital components, so it’ll slowly evolve into a new camera. The first package is a sapphire LCD screen, which can only be scratched by a diamond, plus a new, quieter, less shaky shutter, at a cost of around $1,800.”
Gizmodo
Posture detection
February 5th, 2008 by rbanks
Twirl the reactive skirt
“This skirt has a bend sensor embedded along the seam of the back side, and it thus detects when the wearer is standing up straight, sitting down, or bending over. The sprinning flourishes alter their behavior based on the posture of the wearer.”
Architectradure
Organizing for you
February 5th, 2008 by rbanks
TripIt is awesome
“You take all those travel confirmation emails that you get from your travel agent, hotels, car rental agencies, etc, and you just forward them to plans@tripit.com. That’s all you have to do. You don’t have to sign up for an account. You don’t have to log on. You just forward those emails. You can do it right now. You get a link back by email, with a beautifully organized itinerary, showing all your travel data plus maps, weather reports, and all the confirmation numbers for your flights and address for your hotels and so on.”
Joel on Software
Shape your mouse
February 5th, 2008 by rbanks
Moldable mouse
“Moldable Mouse is made of non-toxic lightweight modelling clay, covered with nylon and polyurethane blend fabric. It can be kneaded into any shape the user prefers, and the shape is self-retaining”
MAKE
Live social tracking
February 1st, 2008 by rbanks
Smart Badges Track Human Behavior
“These badges use an infrared sensor to gather data about face-to-face interactions, a wireless radio to collect data regarding proximity to other badges and send it to a central computer, an accelerometer to track motion of the participant, and a microphone to monitor speech patterns. At the event, the data from the infrared sensors was wirelessly transmitted to a computer that crunched the numbers, producing a real-time visualization of the event’s social graph.”
Technology Review
DNA tests
February 1st, 2008 by rbanks
DNA driven dating service
“Members who sign up for the company’s USD 1,995.95 service send a cheek swab to ScientificMatch, which analyses the portion of their DNA that relates to the immune system. Matches are then suggested with other members who have compatible chemistry.”
Springwise
QR codes in ads
February 1st, 2008 by rbanks
QR codes from Google – The CueCat is comin’ back! (or just use your phone…)
“Recently, you may have seen newspaper ads for jewelry retailer Blue Nile placed through the Google Print Ads platform. These particular ads include a Google footer with multiple response mechanisms: URL, search terms, phone number, coupon code, SMS code, and 2D barcode.”
MAKE
Copy web service
February 1st, 2008 by rbanks
ControlC: Turning Cut & Paste Into A Web Service
“At its most basic, after you create an account and install the software, any time you hit Ctrl-C, the information is saved to the ControlC website as well as your local clipboard, as simple text or as a URL link if what you’ve copied is a link. The information is both private and encrypted, although you can make any item public if you like. Public information can be accessed by friends on the site, via RSS, or an API, commented and rated. This is done via a small download that’s available for Windows or Mac machines.”
TechCrunch
Sheets of sensors
February 1st, 2008 by rbanks
Magic Carpet Ride: Smart Carpet Can Help Seniors Who Fall and Can’t Get Up
“These organic Ink sensors can be utilized in the thousands on a sheet layered between a room’s carpet and carpet pad. Currently, the researchers are working on a system that would feed the data collected by the sensors to a computer for display and electronic analysis. Caregivers could then use this information to determine whether or not the elderly individual was in danger. If all goes well, the device could be used in real world testing scenarios inside two years.”
Gizmodo
Online widget creation
February 1st, 2008 by rbanks
Sprout: The Online WYSIWYG Editor for Flash
“While all WYSIWYG editors lack at least some of the functionality achievable through direct programming, Sprout overcomes this limitation in part by providing a library of “components” that can be integrated into a given creation. The company has lined up general components such as video, slideshows and RSS feeds in addition to components from 3rd party web services such as Meebo
, Yahoo Maps, PollDaddy and Ribbit.”
TechCrunch
2D to 3D
February 1st, 2008 by rbanks
Make3D — convert your images to 3d
“Make3D converts your single picture into a 3-D model. It takes a two-dimensional image and creates a three-dimensional “fly around” model, giving the viewers access to the scene’s depth and a range of points of view. It uses powerful machine learning techniques (more details here), to learn the relation between small image patches and their depth and orientation. This allows it to model 3-d structures such as slopes of mountains or branches of trees.”
MAKE
Virtual graffiti
February 1st, 2008 by rbanks
Graffiti artist creates real-time, 3D paintings
“By utilizing a multi-camera scheme, DAIM is able to smear virtual paint across an empty gallery space using special handheld markers which are tracked by proprietary (we assume) software, calling the project “Tagged in Motion.”
Engadget
Reading assistance
February 1st, 2008 by rbanks
Smartphones: Kurzweil Develops First Seeing-Eye Cellphone
“The system is simple: users take a picture of a printed page using the Nokia’s high-res camera, with a voice-guided recognition system steering them to an optimal framing point. Press a button and “most” printed materials will be easily read in “clear synthetic speech.” For people with dyslexia or other learning disabilities who can see, the system serves to enlarge, read, track or highlight printed text on the N82′s display.”
Gizmodo
Face recognition
February 1st, 2008 by rbanks
’100% accurate’ face recognition algorithm announced
“Mike Burton, Professor of Psychology at Glasgow, and lecturer Rob Jenkins say they achieved their hugely-improved results by eliminating the variable effects of age, hairstyle, expression, lighting, different camera equipment etc. This was done by producing a composite “average face” for a person, synthesised from twenty different pictures across a range of ages, lighting and so on.”
The Register
TV for the sight impaired
February 1st, 2008 by rbanks
TV for the Visually Impaired
“Peli’s group discovered that patients suffering from macular degeneration could not perceive high-frequency waves in the visible spectrum, which left them unable to see fine details. In order to give the patient a much better chance of discerning the image, the researchers designed an algorithm that specifically increases the contrast over the range of spatial frequencies that the visually impaired could see: the middle and low frequency waves. Ultimately, Peli says, the system enhances the contrast of the picture, and the result is that the finer details are more evident.”
Technology Review
