Xdream Fitness Bike: Ride Outdoors Without All of That Pesky Fresh Air
“As you ride, the full experience on the screen is translated to the equipment—right down to the track surfaces and conditions. Plus, it utilizes a full range of muscles in the upper body and lower body, which makes for a more complete workout.”
Gizmodo
A Light Bulb Went Off: Print the Lights
“It makes its O.L.E.D.s with flexible plastic, which can run through a printing press. Its new printing press is made by Energy Conversion Devices, which has been mass producing thin films that can harness solar energy. But solar films are printed in a dry vacuum; G.E. has figured out how to print the O.L.E.D.s using a wet solution — a much cheaper way to go.”
New York Times
Olinda : Social Radio Concept From The BBC
“Users are alerted when any of their friends are listening to the radio and they have the option of tuning in to the same station. The radio knows what you and your friends are listening to, creating the space for recommendations and social networking around your radio tastes.”
PSFK
SongNumbers Mobile Music Service
“The service allows music fans to listen to, share and purchase music from their cell phones
. The technology
behind SongNumbers is patent pending and allows artists to assign a phone number from the SongNumbers.com website to their music and anyone with a cell phone can call the number, preview the track and buy it with the press of a number.”
I4U News
Nanotechnology: Nanobots Get Brains, Scarecrows So Freakin’ Jealous
“16 duroquinone molecules form a ball around one duroquinone molecule in the middle. Once the middle molecule is activated, it simultaneously activates the 16 surrounding molecules to one of four billion different potential outcomes. When these duroquinone brains are combined with existing nano machines, the brains have been able to control up to eight nano machines at once while processing 16 bits of information. Better still, brain prototypes have already been developed supporting 256 and 1024 operations at once.”
Gizmodo
SearchMe Launches New Search Engine With Heavy Backing From Sequoia
“The main difference between SearchMe and other search engines is that it returns results primarily in a visual format, via an image of the result site. The results are displayed in a way that is similar to browsing through albums in iTunes”
TechCrunch
MyVox Lets You Add Voice Notes to Google Maps, RockYou Widgets And More
“MyVox is opening up a new set of APIs
today that will let Web developers add voice notes and audio advertising to any Web application. Instead of making people record their voice on their PC mic or upload an audio file, with MyVox, they use their phones as their mics instead. Website visitors can simply call a number on their regular phones and follow the voice prompts to record a note or message.”
MTechCrunch
Android Tech: Researchers Create Bionic Eye Prototype, Render Guide Dogs Obsolete
” The device works by being implanted into the back of the eyeball and working as a light transmitter to the brain, where the two are connected by a nerve/wire thinner than a human hair. Now, the technology has its limitations; it won’t give sight to those born blind or who suffer glaucoma, nor will it offer perfect vision. Only for those who previously had sight, and a semi-functional optical nerve, is this possible. The idea is that it will give the blind a general sense of their surroundings so they can function on a basic level.”
Gizmodo
Serving Up Television Without the TV Set
“When the fourth season of “The Office,” an NBC comedy, had its premiere in September, one in five viewings was on a computer screen instead of a television. The episode attracted a broadcast audience of 9.7 million people, according to Nielsen Media Research. It was also streamed from the Web 2.7 million times in one week, the executive producer, Greg Daniels, said.”
New York Times
SXSW: This Year’s Twitter? A Simple Scheduling App That Brings Order to the Masses
“Each day’s festival events are laid out in their own tab. Click on a tab to browse the events and pick which panel, film or music show you want to attend. One click adds the item to a personalized page with a unique URL, which can be bookmarked on a mobile device (it looks great on an iPhone) or printed out. You can also see who is attending which event, and sort the events by popularity.”
Wired.com
Safety: Japan Develops a Fire Alarm that Sprays the Smell of Horseradish
“In an innovative solution to the problem of deaf people not being able to hear fire alarms, Japanese researchers have developed one that sprays the strong smell of horseradish, ensuring that everybody with a functioning sense of smell wakes up. In tests, it successfully, silently woke up 13 out of 14 people, with deaf subjects much more receptive to the alarm.”
Gizmodo
Sound Candy
“Wear Sound Candy on your body, record your favorite sounds to it, and jump! Hop! Run! Sound candy mutates the recorded sound according to your movement. Play creatively.”
Architectradure
A ball-shaped camera that takes pictures while playing catch
“When the photographer throws TosPom to the object, the object’s face will be taken automatically as the object catches it, and the picture will be shown on the display. With TosPom, the act of taking pictures becomes a mutual, interactive activity that involves both the photographer and the object while both parties engage in a fun activity of playing catch”
Architectradure
Text Generation Gap: U R 2 Old (JK)
“When Mr. Hampton looked into his rearview mirror he saw his daughter sending a text message on her cellphone. “Katie, you shouldn’t be texting all the time,” Mr. Hampton recalled telling her. “Your friends are there. It’s rude.” Katie rolled her eyes again. “But, Dad, we’re texting each other,” she replied with a harrumph. “I don’t want you to hear what I’m saying.”
New York Times
Scanning the brains of jazz musicians
“The scientists found that a region of the brain known as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a broad portion of the front of the brain that extends to the sides, showed a slowdown in activity during improvisation. This area has been linked to planned actions and self-censoring, such as carefully deciding what words you might say at a job interview. Shutting down this area could lead to lowered inhibitions”
Boing Boing
Bluetooth: Bluetooth purCushion Pillow Lets You Phone While Flat-Out
“The purCushion may be a boon for people, like myself, who relax by lounging around on the floor or sofa, and love to chat on the phone: it’s a Bluetooth pillow. Much more comfy than jamming a cellphone under your head, the 26-inch cotton-velvet pillow has a built-in speaker, microphone and soft buttons for control. Its battery manages 200 hours of standby and eight hours of talking, by which time even I would have got fed up of chattering.”
Gizmodo
Tactile Wand concept aims to aid the visually impaired
“Obviously taking a few cues from another familiar “wand,” this would-be device employs a sensor on the front to determine the distance to the object it’s pointed at, which gets relayed to the user in the form of varying levels of vibration. Needless to say, there’s no indication of it actually moving beyond the concept stage, but it certainly doesn’t seem beyond the realm of possibility.”
Engadget
Iona Cube Wi-Fi internet radio
“Based on the Iona platform technology shown at CES 2007, the device works by simply turning the Cube onto one of four sides and it will automatically change to the programmed radio station. A fifth side contains the speaker and the sixth side switches the radio on or off. In a departure from the traditional ‘push-button’ user-interface of Internet radios, the fun design of the Cube simplifies the way users select which Internet radio stations they listen to. Customization of the Cube can be achieved via a number of ways, including using a simple web interface.”
Gizmag
Real estate 3.0 meets social networking#
“Love That Place, which just launched earlier this month, is a social network designed to let users search, discuss, rate and register interest in property, whether it’s for sale or not. Property owners begin by creating a page and uploading photos of their place—simply to gather feedback and advice, or to test the market and see what other people think. Members of the site can leave comments or send private messages (forums are coming soon), and admirers of a particular property can even send a virtual “door-knock” to see if the owner would consider selling.”
Springwise newsletter
Multisensory pop-up spaces
“Eventscape’s Kapsel is a multisensory functional space that can be set up anywhere in a busy office or elsewhere to create an oasis of relaxation and calm. Based on a lightweight tubular frame, the space can be skinned in any material, with no restrictions on size or form. Full-colour graphics, light, sound and even scent can also be included, creating a completely immersive space that can recharge and refocus employees during brainstorming sessions, for example. The whole design can later be knocked down and reskinned, reused and recycled to create a whole new environment. Custom solutions are also available for medical, retail and hospitality applications.”
Springwise newsletter
Cool screensaver monitors the health of the power grid
“You can actually watch the grid begin to buckle and collapse when a blackout is approaching. Since grid collapses occur randomly and very infrequently, you’d have to be staring at your screensaver 24 hours a day, but hey: Maybe you’ll get lucky! On the other hand, you can also set the screensaver to give off a warning sound when the power in the grid fluctuates too wildly — an impending sign of a blackout.”
collision detection
GoogleLookup Gives Us Another Reason to Use (and Love) Google Docs
“Syntax: =GoogleLookup(”entity”; “attribute”)
where “entity” stands for the name of any subject/item you want information about (i.e. a famous person like Audrey Hepburn; a city like Taipei; a chemical compound like Isopropyl Alcohol) and “attribute” refers to the type of imformation you are trying to retrieve (like Hepburn’s date of birth; Taipei’s population; or the melting point of Isopropyl Alcohol). So for example, entering this into your cell:
=GoogleLookup (”China”; “internet users”)
would yield “123 million (2006)”
PSFK
Sunman Kwon – Mooon Phone
“an innovative communication device which has separable bluetooth headset equipped, and also able to attach the headset to the phone when it’s not in use, simultaneously charging itself.”
Yanko Design
InstantAction and Cafe.com: Browser-Based Games Growing Up, Becoming More Social
“What’s especially impressive is that these games are not even based in Flash or Silverlight. Rather, they run on top of a cross-browser compatible, 150k custom plugin that only has to be downloaded once. The plugin, which has been developed for two and a half years, works with games that are programmed in pretty much any language (C++, Java, Python, etc.). Right now the following four titles are available – Marble Blast, Screw Jumper, Think Tanks, and Cyclomite. The first two are actually popular Xbox games that have been ported over to InstantAction’s platform. While these games have single player versions, the focus is on competitive multiplayer games.”
TechCrunch
Laptops: GeCube Genie PC, Eee Clone with a Special Talent
“OMG ITS HEAD POPPED OFF! We kid, the screen can be detached from the keyboard but retains full computer functionality. Now if the GeCube had combined that idea with a touchscreen, many of us would be pretty excited right now. Instead, the GeCube uses a trackpad on the back side (identical to the one on the keyboard)”
Gizmodo
Air Drums: Silverlit V-Beat Air Drums—Motion-Sensor Sticks for Schmucks
“Containing motion sensors (but, sadly, no neon tips like you see in the picture) they are the beans to the toast that is the V-Beat air guitar. Plug your iPod into the control box and drum along to whatever you fancy. There’s even some kind of pedal thingy that lets you drum with your feet, although the protruding wires made me think “shoe bomb.”
Gizmodo
Jangl Turns On Audio Ads
“People generally use Jangl to place calls or SMSs to other web surfers without exchanging your real number. The new advertising initiative is called Mobile Media Platform
and provides a set of APIs for publishers and ad units for advertisers. The strategy is similar to steps other widget providers have taken to finally make some money off their network by tying in advertisements”
TechCrunch
Brain Scanner Can Tell What You’re Looking At
“The scientists used a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine — a real-time brain scanner — to record the mental activity of a person looking at thousands of random pictures: people, animals, landscapes, objects, the stuff of everyday visual life. With those recordings the researchers built a computational model for predicting the mental patterns elicited by looking at any other photograph. When tested with neurological readouts generated by a different set of pictures, the decoder passed with flying colors, identifying the images seen with unprecedented accuracy.”
Wired
Simtrix trots out radically designed Swiftpoint mice
“First up in the Swiftpoint series is the TriPed (on left), which was designed to be held much like a pen if needed and is aimed primarily at tablet PC / tabletop computer users; according to the firm, it “provides seamless transitioning between mouse, pen, and text entry.” Moving on, we’ve got the equally zany Slider, which looks to grab more attention by being able to operate when sliding over a keyboard.”
Engadget
Researchers tout progress with maglev joystick, aim to bring it to market
“Key to that, obviously, is a whole bunch of electromagnets, which are concealed in the bowl pictured above and allow the “joystick” to levitate, while also providing resistance when it’s moved in any direction. Needless to say, there’s no indication as to when the joystick might actually be available, but Hollis has recently formed a company, Butterfly Haptics, with just that as its goal, and it’ll apparently soon be shipping six of the joysticks to a consortium of US and Canadian universities for testing.”
Engadget
Visualizations of IP and phone traffic from New York
“The system converts IP and voice data traffic into several animations revealing network flow over time between neighborhoods, international calls between more than 100 cities, and the like.”
Boing Boing
Mobile Phone Condoms for Sloppy Diners in China
“Thomas Crampton points us to a Beijing restaurant that provides a plastic cover for sloppy eater’s phone or Blackberry. At this particular restaurant, waiters go the extra mile to delicately put each diner’s phone in the bags.”
PSFK
DENIM
“DENIM is a system that helps web site designers in the early stages of design. DENIM supports sketching input, allows design at different refinement levels, and unifies the levels through zooming.”
DUB
Organic Transistors That Assemble Themselves
“The researchers coax organic semiconductor molecules to self-assemble around chemically pretreated electrodes to form field-effect transistors, which are often used to switch pixels on and off in displays. The technique results in an array of transistors that have good electrical properties and are insulated from one another.”
Technology Review
Ipod+nike: Nike + iPod to Jack Directly Into Gym Equipment
“Nike and Apple are teaming up with most of the major gym equipment makers—Life Fitness, Precor, Star Trac and Technogym—to make their cardio equipment Nike + iPod-friendly. You’ll be able to track workouts on stair steppers, ellipticals, bikes and treadmills and upload them to NikePlus.com, like the standard Nike + iPod”
Gizmodo
Cyber Goggles – wearable memory aid
“These Cyber Goggles have been developed at the University of Tokyo; they record video footage of everyday objects, run them through an object recognition routine and file them away in a database. End result – a searchable visual log of where you last saw something, suggested as an ideal aid to the elderly whose memories aren’t so sharp as they once were.”
Futurismic
Question Box: the Internet for remote places, no literacy or keyboards required
“It works by installing a single-button intercom in the village that is linked to a nearby town where there is a computer with a trained, live operator. Questioners press the intercom, describe their query to the operator, who runs it, reads the search results, and discusses them with the questioner (it’s like those “executive assistant” telephone services, but for people who live in very rural places).”
Boing Boing
IOGEAR’s Mobile Digital Scribe lets you ignore digital pens on the go
“Just like big brother, the Mobile Digital Scribe comes in two parts: the pen itself, which uses ordinary ink in addition to transmitting your doodled masterworks, and the USB receiver, which has been shrunken in size and given a detachable mini-USB cord. The receiver also now has enough memory to hold up to 50 pages of scribblings, which you can download back to your PC for OCR later.”
Engadget
OpenMoko: Design and Make Your Own OpenMoko Phone
“OpenMoko is taking its open philosophy a step beyond its Linux soul and has released the CAD (computer-aided design) files for the Neo1973, allowing you to design and create your own body for the phone. The catch for selfish bastards is that it’s under a ShareAlike Creative Commons license, so you’ve gotta make w/ the show and tell if you whip up a pocket-size Second Coming.”
Gizmodo
audio surf visual music game
“the shape, the speed & the mood of each race is determined by the song chosen, so one is able to “ride the music”. players can earn points by clustering together block of similar color together on the highway, & can compete against each other for the highest score depending on the songs.”
information aesthetics
Babies See Pure Color, but Adults Peer Through Prism of Language
“When asked to pick out a target against a similarly-colored background — a more mentally demanding task than distinguishing between different colors — infants performed better when the target appeared in their left visual fields. Adults, by contrast, had an easier time with targets in their right visual fields. Over the course of our lives, it appears that an unfiltered perception of color gives way to one mediated by the constructs of language. Does this mean that adults and infants see the same colors differently? “We don’t know,” said study co-author Paul Kay. But might adults see colors differently? That seems plausible.”
Wired.com
Orgoo Throws Hat into Video Chat Ring
“The new service is entirely browser-based and allows up to four people to chat via video together at a time (with an unlimited number of people who can join via text chat). For now, there will be a cap of 1,000 people who can broadcast simultaneously over Orgoo, although the company will increase that cap daily.”
TechCrunch
Japanese researchers working on wink-based remote control
“Apparently consisting of a “a single-chip computer and a couple of infrared sensors,” the system, dubbed the Kome Kami Switch (or Temple Switch), lets you perform basic tasks like skipping tracks on an iPod with the blink of an eye, and is supposedly fine-tuned enough to be able to distinguish natural blinking from a deliberate wink.”
Engadget
Wal-Mart Tastemakers Write Unfiltered Blog
“Known for its strict, by-the-books culture — accepting a cup of coffee from a supplier can be a firing offense — Wal-Mart is now encouraging its merchants to speak frankly, even critically, about the products the chain carries. This unusual new Web site, which was quietly created during the holiday shopping season, has become a forum for unvarnished rants about gadgets, raves about new video games and advice on selecting environmentally sustainable food.”
New York Times
Upgrades: Sony Increases Hard Drive Storage Fivefold
“Instead of writing via magnetics, the new system resembles current optical technologies, using a hybrid magnet/laser to write information to a disk at densities of 125GB/square inch. As we understand it, most elements of the traditional hard drive stay intact, but your current 320GB hard drive setup would see data storage reaching 1.6TB.”
Gizmodo
Artificial Solar Leaves: Tack ‘em to Your House!
“Instead of mounting big-ol’ solar panels on heavy rigid structures that need reinforcement and special installers, they’ve put the solar panels on small, flexible, durable pieces of plastic.And then they tacked the pieces of plastic to a house. Of course, each little panel has to be individually wired to its neighbor, so that they can all produce electricity for the house. But the result is still both impressive and inexpensive.”
EcoGeek
World’s first commercial source of individual photons
“The device will greatly benefit the emerging quantum technology industry, including quantum computing, quantum cryptography and quantum imaging.The Single Photon Source, which can be accessed with a standard optical fiber connection, can produce a particle of light at room temperature on demand. The system works by growing microscopic crystals of diamond directly onto the tips of optical fibers, allowing the single photons emitted from the diamond crystals to be channeled directly into the fiber, overcoming the issues of single photon generation in current quantum communication systems.”
Gizmag
Network of TVs Talks to Cellphones and Trades Clips for Advertising
“With Akoo’s network, named m-Venue, cellphone users can send a text-message request for a music video, sports clip or fashion show to be delivered to their phone or played on a nearby Akoo television screen, which would act much like a high-tech jukebox. In return, companies can deliver digital coupons and promotions to the cellphones. For instance, a customer at a John Barleycorn restaurant in Chicago, part of the m-Venue network, might select a text message code displayed on a big screen — say, one that would deliver Gwen Stefani’s new music video. The customer would then receive a text message to the effect of, “Thanks! Gwen Stefani will play shortly. Show this text to your server and get any appetizer for $1.”
New York Times
My 23andMe DNA Results
“I have a higher than normal chance of getting Type 1 diabetes, but a lower than normal of getting Type 2. I have a lower than average chance of getting prostate cancer and Rheumatoid Arthritis. I do not have the genetic material that gives some people resistance to AIDS, although I do have a gene that makes it progress more slowly. I am not genetically resistant to Malaria. I have slightly increased memory performance.”
TechCrunch
Sight unseen: metamaterials could be used to create invisible ships
“Unlike natural materials, which refract light to the right of the incident beam, metamaterials are “left handed”, refracting light at a negative angle, to the left of the incident beam. This allows scientists to “bend” light around the object, allowing the beams to continue as if the object were not there. Duke University succeeded in bending microwaves around metamaterials in 2006, and in the following year researchers at Ames Laboratory developed a method for bending wavelengths in the visible light spectrum. Scientists predict that invisibility will be possible for objects of any shape and size within the next decade.”
Gizmag
More Americans turning to Web for news
“Nearly half of the 1,979 people who responded to the survey said their primary source of news and information is the Internet, up from 40 percent just a year ago. Less than one third use television to get their news, while 11 percent turn to radio and 10 percent to newspapers.”
Reuters
Getting Wickd with ubicomp
“Get Wickd is a dating service using mobile technology. Participants buy Wickd clothing, which features a code. Other participants spot a likely person sporting such a code, check the sigil on cell phone, and have the option of sending a message to the wearer.”
Smart Mobs
Replacing Phones Consciously
“LINC is designed for automated disassembly. A directed radiant heat beam targets its internal memory metal latch, releasing the assembly. In one step, LINC automatically disassembles into its few simple components, glass, aluminum and its circuit flex. The glass and aluminum, not containing any paints or adhesives, are easily recycled to pure grade materials for immediate reuse. The remaining flexible circuit contains all the electronics necessary for the entire device. It’s full of hazardous materials, but it has been safely recovered for proper disposal.”
PSFK
Sega Body Trainer: A Digital Excerise Coach for Your Medical Entertainment
“Taking account of your age, weight and so on, it advises you with spoken prompts along the lines of “Let’s start warming up.” It actually measures your heart rate with an earlobe clip, so it can tailor its advice and can even detect if you’re slacking— you wont get a crazed Army drill instructor-style insult from it though, just a wimpy “please exercise a little bit harder.”
Gizmodo
MSI ECOlution motherboard transforms chip heat into fan power
“MSI’s supposedly introducing a new ECOlution motherboard at CeBIT with an “air powered cooler” that operates on the Stirling Engine Theory to transform the thermal output of its chipset into the kinetic energy necessary to power that same chipset’s fan. Of course, as the fan cools the heatsink it deprives itself of energy, supposedly the piston affixed to the crankshaft pulls back down, giving it another potential surge when its heat rebuilds”
Engadget
Gadgets: The Kiddo Kidkeeper Keeps Your Child on a Digital Leash
“When a child has wandered out of a pre-set range, the transmitter will trigger a visual and audible alarm on the parent’s receiver, prompting them to reel the kid back in. The device offers two range settings of 13 and 26 feet, it is waterproof, and it can monitor up to four kids at once—which is great until a hyperactive child decides to remove the device and hurl it into the woods for no good reason.”
Gizmodo
Zimmer Frame: SatNav system for Zimmer Frames for Those Senior Moments
“It’s Luddite-friendly, with just five large buttons on it, each with a symbol, such as a toilet or a cup of coffee. And, while the GPS works just fine outdoors, the Zimmer SatNav works indoors as well, automatically switching to wireless so users don’t go to sleep in the closet by mistake.”
Gizmodo
GPS Pocket Clock for Mobile Workers
“Exaktime launched a software application for Windows Mobile PDAs that turns the PDA into a GPS time clock. The software records the exact location of workers when they clock in and out. The software eliminates the ability of a worker to clock in and out at different locations from where they are supposed to be.”
I4U News
Advanced route planning for pedestrians
“Users looking for walking routes simply enter their starting location and desired destination, along with whether they prefer the most direct route or the least busy one; there’s also an option to request a route “via” some other spot along the way. Thanks to a feature just added earlier this month, users going through inner London can request “fresh air” routes with the lowest pollution as well. Either way, Walkit then supplies the user with a detailed map and written directions, including distance, walking time, the number of calories burned and the carbon dioxide avoided by walking rather than riding in a car, taxi or bus.”
Springwise newsletter
Design: Intellectual Property Donor Sticker Proves Your Unrealistic Arrogance After You’re Dead
“Affix this (legally binding?) sticker on your driver’s license, in the place generally reserved for organ donor information, and you’re good to go. After all, who needs your kidney when the world could freely enjoy your crappy poetry instead?”
Gizmodo
Botanicalls Twitter
“Botanicalls is a system that was developed to allow plants to place phone calls for human help. When a plant on the Botanicalls network needs water, it can call a person and ask for exactly what it needs. When people phone the plants, the plants orient callers to their habits and characteristics. Call 212.202.8348 to hear more about each of the plants.”
Networked_Performance
Water Ball Ripples
“On top of the frosted ripple surface sits a metal ball. An array of electromagnetic sensors detects that ball’s position. Moving the ball in or out from the center controls water pressure. Moving it around controls temperature.The surface glows red or blue to denote how hot or cold it is.”
Yanko Design
FLOTspotting : Gina Reimann
“Gina Reimann’s concept for Philips’ Next Simplicity exhibition is a lighting design that uses LEDs and color sensors to alter its own hue.”
Core77
Robot as good as real dog at easing lonely hours
“Researchers at Saint Louis University in Missouri compared a 35-pound (16 kg), floppy-eared mutt named Sparky with AIBO, a far-from-lifelike robot dog, to see how residents of three U.S. nursing homes would respond.”The most surprising thing is they worked almost equally well in terms of alleviating loneliness and causing residents to form attachments,” said Dr. William Banks, a professor of geriatric medicine who worked on the study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association.”
Reuters
Skuair: Turning Images Into Barcodes for Your Mobile Phone
“The user simply takes a picture of an advertisement or product logo and a low resolution image is sent to the recognition server and an associated URL is returned. The user can receive a variety of multimedia content from the company or person who owns the image“
TechCrunch
Wearable computer for colorblind painter
“Neil Harbisson, the artist who painted the works [below], suffers from achromatopsia, complete color blindness. He now paints with the assistance of the Eyeborg system, a head-mounted camera that identifies 360 colors and translates them into sounds that Harbisson hears in an earpiece.”
Boing Boing
Soft, Squeezable, Huggable Phone
“It’s a series of discs with electronic fabric stretched in between. The interface uses a combination of tactile gestures like squeezing to hang-up and touch which detects a deformation on the surface to register input. The fibers are fine enough and optically clear allowing light energy to pass thru to display simple contextual menus. Whenever you need a full QWERTY just unfurl the collapsible structure. The cell antenna, battery, camera, and micro electronics are contained inside a tiny clip which itself is made of soft, squeezable, stress-reducing silica”
Yanko Design
Visualization: movie box office data
“The height shows the weekly box office revenue and the area of the shape and color represents the film’s total gross in the US. One thing it shows is that Oscar nominees built popularity over time while Blockbusters are quick hits.”
Boing Boing
Nokia’s nanotech Morph goes on display, signals melting devices in our future
“The unit is included in the MoMA’s “Design and the Elastic Mind” exhibition catalog, and boasts the ability to stretch and flex to almost any shape a user could think of. The nanotechnology-based device would deliver transparent electronics, self-cleaning surfaces, and the malleability to transform into any number of configurations. Of course, the actual technology required to put this together is years or even decades away, though Nokia expects to see some of these innovations making their way into high-end products within seven years.”
Engadget
Invisible Journeys
“Part of the set is this segmented radial visualization showing the recording of wireless networks through journeys on 4 different cities, from bigger to smaller rings: London, Vescemont, Belfort and Barcelona. The time dimension starts reading from the right then it goes clockwise along the main black thick line. Each succesfull recording influences the time line thickness and adds a “pin”. Red pins represent non encrypted networks while other networks are represented by the smaller black pins.”
visualcomplexity.com
I want you to want me
“the visualization consists of an interactive sky, whose weather (e.g. sunny, cloudy, rainy, snowy) can be controlled by the viewer. through the sky float 100s of blue (male) & pink (female) balloons, each representing a single dating profile. the brighter balloons are younger people; the darker balloons older. the piece has 5 formal movements, focusing on sentences that start with “I am” or “I am looking for”, on opening or closing lines, or sorting the most popular turn-ons, first dates, desires, self-descriptions & interests.”
information aesthetics
Robots set to overhaul service industry, jobs
“Autonomous mobile robots are starting to appear, as well. In more than 100 hospitals across the US, nurses receive help from robotic “tugs” that tow carts that deliver everything from meals to linens.”
csmonitor.com
Smile, you’re on a bar Webcam
“The idea is simple: with a Webcam installed in a bar or restaurant, potential customers can call up the live video stream online or by mobile phone so they can survey the crowd before venturing out. People who want a quiet night can scout for a bar with a mellow scene, and those who want a lively night can look for the crowds. (Webcam bar promoters say it’s typically a 50-50 split between the two camps.)”
CNET News.com
Floating a New Idea For Going Wireless, Parachute Included
“His company, Space Data Corp., already launches 10 balloons a day across the Southern U.S., providing specialized telecom services to truckers and oil companies. His balloons soar 20 miles into the stratosphere, each carrying a shoebox-size payload of electronics that acts like a mini cellphone “tower” covering thousands of square miles below.”
WSJ.com
New camera tech can detect blood and water content in your car. Ew.
“The obvious application is for trimming down those carpool lane offenders, trying to squeeze by the law with a dummy or a pet in the passenger seat.”
Engadget
Mitsumi haptic input device could enable one-handed mobile operation
“At a recent presentation, the outfit highlighted a new haptic input device that would ideally be situated on the rear of a handset / PMP and enable users to activate applications without having to use another hand to do so. The device consists of “a sheet with small protrusions, a resistance sensitive touch pad and switches,” and while the prototype was a tad unsightly, the firm is hoping to reduce the thickness before taking it commercial.”
Engadget
DIY IR headgear repels security cameras, attracts “security”
“Dubbed the I-R.A.S.C. (for “infra-redlight against surveillance camera”), the device apparently consists simply of a series of infrared lights connected to a battery, which combine to blot out your face with a slightly unnerving glow. Needless to say, while it appears to hide your identity quite effectively, it doesn’t exactly scream subtlety, so you’d best think of some excuses to explain yourself if you actually plan on trying this thing out in public.”
Engadget
“Explorations into Houseplant care as a timekeeping issue”
Situationally Appropriate Solutions
Funny: Researchers Have Developed a Working Laugh-o-Meter
“The device works using a series of electrode sensors that monitor the amount of bioelectricity generated by various muscles involved in laughter. The data is then whisked away to a computer where it is analyzed an assigned a numerical score based on its quantity. Furthermore, the difference between real and fake laughter is determined by monitoring the movement of the diaphragm. If the muscle vibrations are high, that would be an indicator of a genuine laugh.”
Gizmodo
Exascale Computing Requires Chips, Power and Money
“Commercial supercomputer makers have recently begun to flirt with petaflop performance, meaning computers capable of completing 1,000 trillion floating-point calculations (flops) per second. The Sandia and Oak Ridge national lab scientists aim to leapfrog that benchmark by several orders of magnitude and are targeting one million trillion calculations per second, known as exascale computing”
Wired
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