New Research Reveals Teens are Taking Control of the Remote
“Apparently, parents are no longer making the decisions about what their kids do or don’t watch, nor when they watch it. In the research, more than half of the ‘lab members’ were watching TV on their computers or storing it for later viewing – at a time that suited them. On top of this, nearly two-thirds were using a DVR to store their shows.”
PSFK
Add your own images to other people’s photos with the Image Fulgurator
“The device senses if a camera’s flash goes off and synchronizes a projection on the object being photographed at the same time. The result, as can be seen in the video on the site, is that tourists and others taking photos end up having bizarre images mapped onto their photos.”
MAKE
PageRank for Product Image Search
“We cast the image-ranking problem into the task of identifying authority nodes on an inferred visual similarity graph and propose an algorithm to analyze the visual link structure that can be created among a group of images. Through an iterative procedure based on the PageRank computation, a numerical weight is assigned to each image; this measures its relative importance to the other images being considered.”
visualcomplexity.com
Expression recognition turns humans into remote controls… for robots
“Jacob Whitehill at UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering has demonstrated a proof of concept that allows his facial expressions to speed-up and slow-down video playback.”
Engadget
Cellphone Concept Features Shape-Shifting Screen
“with this shape-shifter concept he complicates things a bit by incorporating two layers of plastic into his design—one flexible layer and one hard layer with liquid inside. The liquid would be pushed between the layers, forming different shapes on the surface.”
Gizmodo
CCTV cameras ‘taught to listen’
“The visual-recognition software will be able to identify visual patterns but for the next stage we want to get the camera to pivot if it hears a certain type of sound. “So, if in a car park someone smashes a window, the camera would turn to look at them and the camera operator would be alerted.”
BBC NEWS
Orange launches dance-powered phone charger
“The Orange Dance Charge is a portable phone charger powered through the kinetic movement of a system of weighs and magnets, which move as you groove. The system’s contained within a jogger-style MP3 arm strap, which also contains a storage battery for holding all the dance-generated energy. When your mobile phone runs out of power, you only have to connect the storage battery up to your mobile phone before you’ve got enough juice to continue snapping blurry pictures of on-stage bands, or texting your mates that Trent Reznor’s sweat just landed on your face.”
Register Hardware
More Wiimote monkeying with Johnny Lee
“In the above video, he gives a presentation on different types of flexible, foldable displays using the motion tracking of the Wiimote and IR LEDs (and projection) to simulate the displays.”
MAKE
Magcloud: On Demand Magazine Printing
“Users upload PDF’s of their magazine to the site and set a desired profit on top of shipping and productions costs. Magcloud then generates a publisher page for your title which provides information, issue previews and an order form. After that the site does all the work, handling the printing, mailing, subscription management, and promotion. Although anyone can buy from the site, publisher accounts are invitation only at the moment.”
PSFK
Save Money, Go Adventuring With Japanese RPG Piggy Bank
“The fantasy-themed piggy bank from Takara Tomy includes a tiny LED screen that plays a tiny role-playing game, in which your hero fights a tower full of monsters. The catch? If you want to equip your character to fight the beasts, you have to put money into the bank. You can use it to buy over 160 different items, which have a combined worth of 10,000 yen (about $100).”
Wired.com
Macrosense
“At the heart of Macrosense are powerful machine learning algorithms that process time-stamped location data and metadata streams from heterogeneous sources – GPS, WiFi positioning, cell tower triangulation, RFID and other sensors – and empower companies and investors to better understand and predict human behavior on a macro scale.”
Sense Networks
StealthVue aids reliable surveillance in the age of baseball caps
“The PennyCam is concealed within a Take-A-Penny, Leave-A-Penny tray, and connects to a DVR using a standard BNChttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BNC cable, which can be run underneath the counter. The USD$199 unit is powered by a 12vdc adapter, and delivers 500×582 pixel images with its 1/3” Sony CCD Image Sensor.”
Gizmag
Video Comments The Japanese Way (Nico Nico Douga)
“Nico Nico’s most distinctive feature is that members communicate via short texts inserted on top of the video feeds. Entries are time-synched and flow over the frame from right to left. Using different colors, other users can add comments later in the same way. Some videos are virtually covered with thousands of lines of text, which can be filtered or turned off. This feature sounds totally absurd but is the main reason why users spend twice as much time on Nico Nico as they do on Youtube. Until today, over 1.2 billion comments were added to the 1.1 million videos on the site, up from 600 million in November 2007.”
TechCrunch
Researcher crafts tattoo / scar matching system to nab outlaws
“Anil Jain has created an automatic image retrieval system dubbed Tattoo-ID, which “includes an annotated database containing images of scars, marks and tattoos” that is “linked to the criminal history records of all the suspects and convicts who have a tattoo.” Essentially, the application will give law enforcement the ability to query on permanent skin markings, which sure beats manually flipping through ginormous books of images just hoping for a match.”
Engadget
In Search of Perfect Harmony, Through Software
“MUSICIANS who want to create note-perfect digital recordings of their performances may soon have a powerful tool to help them: a computer program designed to correct mistakes in their piano riffs or guitar accompaniments as easily as software now fixes the red eyes in digital photographs. The new software is precise enough, for instance, to reach into an audio file and change any one of the six notes in a guitar chord without changing the sound of the other notes, said Peter Neubäcker, inventor of the program and founder of Celemony Software, the Munich company that will sell it.”
NYTimes.com
Very intelligent electronic binoculars to use brain activity
“HORNET will utilize a helmethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmet equipped with electro-encephalogram electrodes placed on the scalp to monitor brain activity. The operator’s neural responses to potential threats will train the system’s algorithms, which will continue to be refined over time so that the warfighter is always presented with items of relevance to his mission (let’s hope it works better than a spam filter).”
Gizmag
Ringtones for dogs coming to Japanese cellphones
“A Tokyo-based content provider named Dwango announced today that it would start selling specialized ringtones which can be heard only by dogs. The service, called Inu ni shika kikoenai chakushinon (ringtones only dogs can hear) will make free downloads available to current DoCoMo i-mode subscribers. No word on whether the company will provide Bluetooth headsets and holsters suited to our canine friends, but we understand plans are in the works for a line of bacon-themed wallpapers.”
Engadget
Apparel: Third-Eye Jacket Records People Laughing at You Behind Your Back
“The third eye or “Hard-Ware” concept jacket by designer Paul Coudamy gives the wearer an expanded range of vision by awkwardly integrating a micro-camera on the back. The device records all of the people behind you laughing at your ugly jacket and then transmits those embarrassing images to an awkwardly integrated monitor located on the wrist.”
Gizmodo
The organic Cloud
“The Cloud is an organic sculptural landmark that responds to human interaction and expresses context awareness using hundreds of sensors and over 15,000 individually addressable optical fibers. Constructed of carbon glass, spanning over four meters, and containing more than 65 kilometers of fiber optics, the Cloud encourages visitors to touch and interact with information in new ways, manifesting emotions and behavior through sound and a dichotomy of luminescence and darkness.”
Core77
Pogo: Try AT&T’s Pogo 3D Web Browser
“It has some graphically interesting ways of doing bookmarks, history (probably my favorite feature with a Time Machine-like 3D timeline) and tabs, and a dock along the bottom. I’m kind of mixed on it so far—the eye candy doesn’t always translate into more productive browsing”
Gizmodo
Cloning: 5.5
“Physical data is taken from the client’s body and used in the process to reflect the user. Eye colour and details are used for glassblowing that takes place on Murano, and hair quantity and style will determine the most efficient sort of comb. Profile results in mirror shape, and range of body hair will result in a hand-embroidered rug. Weight and posture will be useful in creating made-to-measure chairs and pillows, while a fingerprint can personalize your mug.”
MoCo Loco
The EM Brace
“The EM Brace can sense the electromagnetic radiation that is emitted from many of today’s electronic devices. After it detects the radiation, the device converts these invisible signals into physical shaking that the user can feel”
MAKE
Prezenter PSR Two-Touchscreen Laptop: Travelling Sales Pitches Go High-Tech
“It’s a custom notebook PC, designed to fold so that a 14-inch screen faces the victims audience, while a 7-inch touchscreen faces the seller. The small screen controls the presentation, and the audience can draw stuff on their screen.”
Gizmodo
Transistors See the Light
“Researchers from the University of California, San Diego, report they have built the first transistors (the building blocks of integrated circuits) that carry information not as electrons but as excitons—pairs of positive and negative charges created by shining light onto electrons in a semiconductor crystal, which leaves a positively charged “hole”.”
Scientific American
New system estimates geographic location of photos
“The IM2GPS algorithm developed by computer science graduate student James Hays and Alexei A. Efros, assistant professor of computer science and robotics, doesn’t attempt to scan a photo for location clues, such as types of clothing, the language on street signs, or specific types of vegetation, as a person might do. Rather, it analyzes the composition of the photo, notes how textures and colors are distributed and records the number and orientation of lines in the photo. It then searches Flickr for photos that are similar in appearance.”
Physorg
Dipping: Pool Crashing in the UK Becomes Latest Google Earth Prank
“The latest craze for teenagers with no place to go except Facebook is “dipping,” or gatecrashing someone else’s swimming pool. According to the Daily Mail (commenter djheath‘s favorite publication, if I recall correctly) putative trespassers select their swimming pool using Google Earth, and then notify their mates using social networking sites. The would-be revellers often turn up in fancy dress, and are advised to bring a bike (for a swift getaway).”
Gizmodo
TimesPeople, a lightweight socialnetwork for the New York Times
“For example, when you recommend an article, comment on a blog post, or rate a movie or restaurant, these activities will become visible to other TimesPeople members in a special toolbar at the top of every NYTimes.com page. You’ll also have a personal page that keeps track of your TimesPeople activities and lets you browse your network of readers.”
Boing Boing
Nike PhotoiD
“Take a photo with a mobile phone, text message it to a designated number, and Nike will extract the two dominant colors from the scene to create a pair of classic 1985 Dunk high-top basketball sneakers.”
PSFK
How to Live With Just 100 Things
“Stuff starts to overwhelm you,” says Dave Bruno, 37, an online entrepreneur who looked around his San Diego home one day last summer and realized how much his family’s belongings were weighing him down. Thus began what he calls the 100 Thing Challenge. (Apparently, Bruno is so averse to excess he can’t refer to 100 things in the plural.) In a country where clutter has given rise not only to professional organizers but also to professional organizers with their own reality series (TLC’s Clean Sweep), Bruno’s online musings about his slow and steady purge have developed something of a cult following online, inspiring others to launch their own countdown to clutter-free living.”
TIME
Reading University Neural Animat Project
“The neurally controlled animat consists of a culture of cortical cells which interact with the real world. The cells are in a lab, and become embodied by controlling a robot which acts as the artificial body of the remote ‘brain’. The robot is able to sense it’s surroundings, and pass this information back to the culture of cells. This creates a feedback loop between the cells and the robot.”
Material Beliefs
WeMix: A Music Career Via Cellphone
“It allows aspiring musicians to upload any kind of musical performance and get feedback from both peers and industry pros. The website features standard social networking features including profiles, video uploads and song rating. There’s also a toll free number to call where you can record your songs. If Ludacris or another of the sites celebrity mentors likes an artist, they’ll get flown to Los Angeles to record a polished version of the song in 48 hours for a WeMix video series.”
PSFK
Zoomii.com – The “Real” Online Bookstore
Virtual, browsable bookshelves
Zoomii
‘Skin-tenna’ wireless signals creep over human skin
“Compact “patch” antennas that lie flat on the skin have been made before. But they make poor connectors because most of their signals travel away from the body, not along it. Mast-style ‘monopole‘ antennas like those on cars are better at transmitting laterally. But still transmit upwards too. Now, Scanlon and Conway have designed a version that that channels much more of its signal sideways by taking advantage of the “creeping wave” effect that allows waves to travel along a surface. The same effect is responsible for both a person’s ears hearing a sound only directed at one side of their head.”
New Scientist Tech
Robot Bands: Robot Band is at Least as Good as Coldplay
“Zealand‘s The Trons is a four piece rock band made up entirely of robots playing real instruments, performing real shows and—rumor has it—taking advantage of real groupies.”
GIZMODO
Made in Japan – Volume 19
“It is reported that this can also be controlled via cell phone, if you’re in Japan. To give it whirl on the net, go here and click on bar (1, below). Depending on the traffic, you might have to wait your turn, but once your turn is up, you can control the lights from the (2) area, the direction from the (3) area, and the position via (4). Once it’s your turn, you get about a minute of time to control the kaleidoscope. Also, the lighting varies depending on the time of day, so it will naturally be darker when it’s nighttime in Japan.”
MAKE
Footbo.com: (Real) Football Social Network Kicks-Off
“Footbo provides football-related content in the form of live feeds, line-ups, game schedules and tables from about 70 leagues around the world. A Predictions section
allows users to predict the final scores of games. These can be submitted/edited until the kick-off of each match. Users can also grade player performance, thereby electing the “Top 11″ of each league or round. Integrated wiki functionality lets users add and edit content about teams and players. There are already tens of thousands of existing profiles with basic info on teams and players. Game pages feature fan boards and live discussions. The Euro 2008 section leverages these features on a single page for a “one-stop” experience.”
TechCrunch
Web Clipping: Iterasi Saves Snapshots of Dynamic Web Pages
“Install the Firefox or IE Iterasi add-on, click the Notarize button to save a snapshot of the current state of a web site—even the dynamic stuff you click on, like a pop-up location on a Google Map—to your Iterasi account. Add notes to your saved pages on the Iterasi web site, tag them, and search on the page content, notes, or tags. You can even use Iterasi to monitor a web site over time and set it to take a snapshot at scheduled intervals.”
LifeHacker
Micro-Interactions: Making The Experience Portable
“Mike, an Apple employee was one of the first to greet me—and he extended a simple gesture. As he introduced himself he held up his iPhone which was displaying a digital name tag generated on the Web that he had just personalized moments ago. Within minutes, nearly half of the attendees of this small gathering were doing the same. it had gone “viral” so to speak—each person found our where they could customize their own “badge” and some were even adding “@” symbols so that their “Twitter friends” could recognize who they were. And this I thought was a simple but relevant example of how we are having “micro-interactions” in ways that we we can take with us.”
Logic+Emotion
‘Electron turbine’ could print designer molecules
“A carbon nanotube that spins in a current of electrons, like a wind turbine in a breeze, could become the world’s smallest printer or shrink computer memory, UK researchers say. The design is simple. A carbon nanotube 10 nanometres long and 1 nm wide is suspended between two others, its ends nested inside them to form a rotating joint. When a direct current is passed along the tubes, the central one spins around.”
New Scientist Tech
Wingscapes BirdCam keeps an eye on wildlife
“The weatherproof camera boasts easy operation and three capture modes; auto, which makes use of an Infrared sensor to capture images based on motion detection; manual, which includes remote control operation from a distance of up to 30 feet away: and time lapse mode.”
Gizmag
Growing Experiment in Interactive TV Advertising
“The test offers viewers programs — and ads — they can respond to by using remote controls to click on icons they see on their screens. Each click sends a signal to the viewer’s personal portal — basically, a site where everything the person has expressed interest in is aggregated. Then, the viewer can look up more information there the next time he or she goes online.”
NYTimes.com
Gorgeous Pummer
“Part robotic plant life, part techno-sculpture, these desktop toys are easy and fun to make, the pummer!.”
MAKE
A 30-picowatt processor for sensors
“University of Michigan (U-M) researchers have developed an ultra low power microchip which ‘uses 30,000 times less power in sleep mode and 10 times less in active mode than comparable chips now on the market.’ It only consumes 30 picowatts in sleep mode, which means that a simple watch battery could power the chip for more than 200 years. Of course, this is not a processor for your next computer. It is designed for sensor-based devices such as medical implants, environment monitors or surveillance equipment. However, the design is very clever.”
Primidi
How To: Make Your Own Stabilized Video Collage
“One of the most creative uses of Flickr video support is the “stabilized video collage,” a beautiful way to capture a scene in a multi-frame moving portrait, as shown.”
LifeHacker
Add some nostalgia to your digital photography
“His device shoots video as if it were taken from a Super 8 film camera from the 1950s and 60s. The idea is to instill a sense of the past into today’s often sterile photographic process.”
MAKE
Quillpill: A Twitter For Cell-Phone Novelists
“In order to compose a so-called book, users first choose a title and then submit posts with a maximum of 140 characters. Entries belonging together are displayed one below the other in a thread-like structure. Authors are able to create any kind of text-based content over time, including diaries, short stories, poems or even novels.”
TechCrunch
IBM’s Drumming Car Reads Your Lips. Seriously
“IBM calls it “Artificial Passenger” and says touch-sensitive controls at 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock let you channel Neil Peart while creeping through traffic. If drumming ain’t your thing, you can lip-sync to your favorite tune and the steering wheel will knock out some beats based upon the movement of your lips.”
Wired.com
Korg’s nanoSeries shrinks your music studio
“The diminutive set includes the nanoKEY (a 25-note, velocity sensitive keyboard), the nanoPAD (12 trigger pads and a touch-sensitive X/Y touchpad), and the nanoKONTROL (a mini-mixer with nine faders, nine knobs, 18 switches, and playback controls). The modular, lilliputian gear connects via USB and are all bus-powered, though we’re hoping they’ve got other power options so the devices can be daisy-chained.”
Engadget
A company called Cargo Cosmetics makes a line of makeup…
“Developed in response to the needs of makeup artists shooting in high definition, these specialized products work for high-def and are ideal for perfecting the skin while still giving a natural look.”
kottke.org
Aussies deploy bovine facial recognition
“We use the unique side profile that every animal has and a software programme similar to facial recognition technology that allows us to identify animals to a species level. The camera can tell the difference between sheep and cattle and feral pests such as goats, horses, pigs, kangaroos, camels and emus. “You could have a cattle station that has feral populations of horses, donkeys or camels. The watering points are there for the cattle, so the camera would let the cattle through, but if a goat or a pig tried to get in the gate would shut against it.”
The Register
Awesome Highlighter
“Allowing you to highlight specific text from any web page, it then creates a unique link to a personalized page with all the selected information. At the very least the Awesome Highlighter is an amazing time saver. At its best it is an excellent research tool as it allows you to swipe notes from the infinite dubyadubyadubyas out there. The Awesome Highlighter is proof that as our collective ability for accessing information grows, so does our ability to choose exactly what we want and like to customize information.”
CoolHunting
I have seen the future of urban life
“It gathers real-time positional fixes from mobile devices (so far, naturally, for San Francisco only), aggregates them and plots them on a map that is itself then pushed back to the mobile device. The result is a live “heat map” of human activity, displaying specifically which parts of the city people tend to use, and when. In a dreamy rhythmscape designed as if to give Henri Lefebvre a posthumous boner, you can see surges of activity washing over the city just like an algal bloom across the surface of a lake: morning commute, lunch break, quittin’ time, supper and the dispersal home (followed by a discrete, if just possibly indiscreet, coda of after-hours clubbing). It’s a textbook illustration of my dictum that nothing is as interesting as information about place in that place, delivered in such a way that it can be acted upon.”
Adam Greenfield’s Speedbird
Experts unveil ‘cloak of silence’
“The Spanish team who conducted the new work believe the key to a practical device are so-called “sonic crystals”. These artificial composites – also known as “meta-materials” – can be engineered to produce specific acoustical effects. “Unlike ordinary materials, their acoustic properties are determined by their internal structure,” explained Professor Pendry. These would be used to channel any sound around an object, like water flowing around a rock in a stream.”
BBC NEWS
Flexible Learning » Yanko Design
“The UMPC activates by fingerprint scan ensuring security. It has an multi touch OLED screen and has a fully customizable interface. The second part is a PMP enabling the student to record classes, assignments, listen to audio books and/or record their own notes. The third part is a set of 60 mini screens with e-ink technology that can be puzzled together into cubes. They can be filled with pictures or text on both sides and can then be used as a game to study – think hi-tech flash cards. The entire system addresses how almost every student learns, be it text memorization, game interactivity, repetition, or experimentation.”
Yanko Design
Soft sounds
“This is a soft radio made from linen fabric and a foam rubber core protecting the electronics. The revolutionary thing about it is its tuning device, which consists of a needle, thread and an embroidered FM scale. To tune into a station you simply slide the needle over the fabric until you find the station you want. Then stick the needle in!”
idealist
Thinking up beautiful music
“The Brain Computer Interface for Music requires electrodes to be attached to the head. They pick up electrical impulses from the brain which are passed through an electroencephalography (EEG) machine and analysed. [...] The brain monitoring device requires electrodes to be attached to the head through a cap. When musical notes flash the scientist stares at the display while thinking of a note he wants to play. When the same note appears it unconsciously triggers a change in his brain activity – a change registered by the computer he was plugged into.”
BBC NEWS
3D Display Gcubik: gCubik is Palm-Sized 3D Display Everyone Can See at Once
“Those bright spots aren’t LEDs, but a complex array of lenses arranged on top of LCDs, forming the sides of a cube. By a kind of optical parallax trick, and something called “integral photography,” it makes it look like there’s an object in the box. Best of all, gCubik is a naked-eye tech and can be viewed simultaneously by a group of people. The team’s working on making it wireless and higher-res, and even hopes to commercialize it within three years for use in design, education or games devices.”
Gizmodo
Wall Racers: Your home is a racetrack
“It seems these little racecars use ultra-sonic sensors and a Picaxe to keep them a predetermined distance away form the walls. They keep going around the room, creating their own racetrack.”
MAKE
wordle elegant word clouds
“an online tool for generating beautiful “word clouds” from user-provided texts, such as plain text files or del.icio.us tags. the clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. users can tweak their clouds with different fonts, layouts & color schemes. users can also print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with friends.”
information aesthetics
Intel R&D: Robot Hand Can Sense Objects Before Touching Them
“Using electrolocation, the fingertips of the robot hand send out a weak electrical impulse, and approaching objects interfere with that impulse, which allows the hand to form to the object before touching it.”
Gizmodo
Health: M-Powered System Turns a Lincoln Into the Diabetesmobile
“a Lincoln sedan fitted with a system that wirelessly connects a patient’s glucose monitor with the dashboard. Once connected, the system will continually update the driver’s on his/her health status via audio and visual cues. There is no word on whether or not this system will actually be available for patients anytime soon however.”
Gizmodo
Mahalo Has Competition (YouBundle Secret Screen Shots)
“A bundle is a collection of your expertise on any given subject. A bundle should NOT BE a completely exhaustive list of links to cover every possible point of the subject. It should rather be a finely tuned and specialized list of links to relevant information on the subject. The idea is NOT to replicate the 1st page of Google or a link farm. We want every single link in the bundle to be tested, relevant and offering quality information. Just because a link comes from an authority site such as Wikipedia, does not mean that you have to include the link – we want flavor and variety – not sterility.“
TechCrunch
Moodstream: Getty’s Streaming Inspiration
“The site cycles through photos, videos and music using their huge cache of media as source material. Getty has created a tool for creative professionals (or everyone else) to find fresh inspiration. The control panel has sliders to adjust the mood and tone of the media; happy to sad, warm to cool. You’re also able to save favorites, and (of course) purchase the media.”
PSFK
Video: NeoVisus Gaze prototype enables handsfree computer control
“The NeoVisus Gaze prototype, quite simply, enables computer users to control the action on screen with just their eyes. Granted, this setup works entirely better when viewing photos than, say, typing up a thesis — but there’s always voice recognition software for that, right?”
Engadget
When Dogs and Robots Collide, Somebody Needs a Talking To
“When the device started scooting around the floor, Mr. Hearn’s dog, Argos, attacked it. Seeking help, Mr. Hearn found an online forum dedicated to the hundred-dollar Roomba buzzing with similar stories of pet assailants. Owners were offering advice. Among the most popular: Chastise the vacuum in front of the dog. WSJ’s Adam Najberg reports that dogs exhibit a curious dislike for technology, which they often attack. Watch as he negotiates a truce between Sunshine, a Heinz 57 hound, and a Roomba, the robot vacuum cleaner. And so, with Argos looking on, Mr. Hearn shook his finger at his gadget and sternly called it “a bad Roomba.” Argos appeared to be mollified. “After that, he never tried nipping at it again,” says Mr. Hearn, a software engineer in San Carlos, Calif.”
WSJ.com
Man Mods 51-Year-Old Telly Ahead of Digital Switchover (QOTD: Why? )
“Using an electronic converter sourced from the US, a specialist shop put the mahogany-cased telly back on the airwaves for around $400. They also replaced 13 old capacitators, the brightness control, and added a lead in order to prevent the tube from burning out. Despite the 21st-century makeover, Mr Howard’s set is still not a thoroughly modern telly. It takes 10 seconds to warm up and still emits what he refers to as an “old TV smell” from the warming of the paxolin resin insulators.”
Gizmodo
viewzi visual search
“Viewzi consists about 16 different views, including a “3D Photo Cloud”, “Album View”, “Celebrity Photo View” & a “Weather View”. each view draws results from different sources, ranging from Amazon to Weather.com.”
information aesthetics
Yokohama Soundscape 2007
“A sound installation, in which visitors can listen to various “soundscape” recorded in Yokohama by shining on a miniature model of the city with flashlights. The location of lights on the miniature are detected by a hacked infrared web-camera and a Max/MSP patch, then sounds recorded in the corresponding area are played.”
.mediateletipos
BMW GINA Concept Revealed: Innovative Roadster with Flexible Textile Skin
“To put it simple, the GINA is a roadster concept on which the usual body sheet metal found on production vehicles such as bonnet, side panels and doors have been all replaced with a special, flexible, highly durable and extremely expansion-resistant fabric material that stretches across a metal wire structure. A number of elements of the substructure are actually moveable and the driver can shift them by means of electro and electro-hydraulic controls resulting to a change the shape of the outer skin. For example, when the headlights are not active they are hidden under the special fabric cover. As soon as the driver turns on the lights, the contour of the front ends changes revealing the twin-headlights –just like a human being opens his eyes.”
Carscoop
AIST unveils flexible display created with microcontact printing
“The big deal with this one is that all the processes needed to fabricate the organic TFT were done with microcontact printing, which allowed ‘em to achieve a pixel pitch of 127μm even in its their initial 6×6-inch prototype, with the display also working effectively over its entire surface. That doesn’t mean that it’s quite ready for commercial use just yet, however, although the institute is promising to have A4-sized prototype ready by 2010, with actual e-paper products set to follow sometime around 2015.”
Engadget
Bluetooth Input Pen
“Japanese SMK Corp. developed a Wireless Input Pen. The company showed the novelty at the TEXPO 2008 in Tokyo last week.
The pen has built-in triaxial acceleration sensors and Bluetooth.
SMK says that this is the world’s first pen device that can transmit characters written in the air to a PC. SMK”
I4U News
Location aware task tracking
“OmniFocus is a task management system that’s now location aware thanks to the iPhone. This means it knows to show you your grocery list while you’re at the store and work tasks while you’re at work. Passive interaction could really make similar systems a lot more enjoyable to use.”
Hack a Day
UnrealArt
“The Bots play custom maps created by Alison Mealey. Each map has been pathed so that the bots have a rough idea of where to go in order to create the image she wants. Alison logs the position (X,Y,Z) of each player each second using a customized mutator, as well as the position of a death. She then runs her own code written in processing to create postscript files of that match.”
visualcomplexity.com
Displays: HoloVizio True 3D Display Uses Voxels, No Goggles
“HoloVizio may look like yet another 3D screen, but it completely changes the approach to three-dimensional displays using voxels instead of pixels. Each voxel can project multiple light beams—of different intensity and colors—in several directions, simultaneously. This means that anyone standing around the monitor will actually see an object from a different perspective, with no need for goggles or other stereoscopic tricks. The results are impressive, as you can see on the videos.”
Gizmodo
Wi-Fi Networking News: Charting a Landscape with Wi-Fi Signals
“The research revealed some expected results, such as an extremely high number of access points in the most densely inhabited parts of town, but Dr. Torrens said he didn’t expect to find that less-populated parts of town would also have a nearly ubiquitous spread of nodes. One area “that’s relatively underpopulated is a whole warehouse district,” he said, and they had lots of access points. In the least-covered areas of the city, about seven access points were “visible”; in some places, that number was as high as 43 access points.”
Wi-Fi Net News
Art: Passive Aggressive Anger Release Machine, or Goodbye Kitty
“It’s pretty self-explanatory—a vending machine that smashes smashables for you, although I’m not sure it gives you the same satisfaction that you get from chucking china at the floor.”
Gizmodo
Encyclopaedia Britannica To Follow Modified Wikipedia Model
“Britannica is going halfway to where it’s never gone before: it is opening up its site to the crowd, but keeping the gates up against the barbarians as far as the official version of the publication concerned. By editing all changes to its core base of information before they are posted online, Britannica, which has been online since 1994, hopes to create a trusted source that takes into account the input of the crowd. Members of the company’s community of scholars and registered users will be able to post about new topics without intervention, but the company says all articles on new topics will be fact-checked and vetted before appearing in the main edition.”
Wired.com
Haptics: Scientists Make Bandaid-Sized Flexible Haptic Display
“Their new tactile “display” is flexible enough to be rolled up around your finger like a bandaid, and may be a useful computerized Braille aid. The device uses new precisely-arranged electroactive polymers, which expand when a voltage is applied creating gentle pressure to nearby skin. This, along with the fact it doesn’t need complex electronics, means that it’s the kind of tech that could easily end up in haptic-feedback data gloves or a “tele-feeling transferring system,” which sounds *ahem* fascinating.”
Gizmodo
Hand-crafted technology
“The two-toned gadget, which comes in three sizes, has been drawing praise in the design world for its appealing mix of retro and modern stylings and its use of sustainable wood. But that doesn’t even begin to tell the most compelling part of the radio’s story: the designer, Singgih Susilo Kartono, began his business to improve the economic conditions of his Indonesian village and school its residents in the ways of environmentally responsible production.”
TreeHugger
Sensor: DuoFertility Patch Measures Ovulation Timing, No Pee Samples Needed
“The patch is a small rubberized gizmo (with a new efficient battery that lasts eight months) and it sticks to your skin and measures your basal body temperature way more accurately than other systems: this temperature rises minutely during ovulation. When the wireless reader unit gets the info on your temperature change, it then lets you know the best time to try out some baby-making with symbols on its display, or a readout on your PC— it’s got a USB connection.”
Gizmodo
Adapting Websites to Users
“Based on a user’s pattern of clicks, the prototype website for British Telecom, shown [below], changes to fit the user by making a guess at the user’s cognitive style. For example, after determining whether he or she thinks in holistic or analytic terms, the website adapts to a form that it deems most likely to sell products to that user.”
Technology Review
Wirelessly networking cows
“a grazing cross-bred beef cow wearing a directional virtual fencing (DVF) battery: (1) powered neck saddle device equipped with spring loaded electrodes (only left side pair shown 2) for providing electrical stimulation and left (3) and right (4) piezo speakers housed inside poly vinyl chloride (PVC) pipe for audio stimulation. A global positioning system (GPS) antenna (5) is located in the centre of a panel of solar cells (6). This prototype platform may appear clumsy but was remarkably robust during numerous field trials conducted between 2001 and 2005″
Primidi
Twitter: FlixPulse Rates Movies by Twitter Consensus
“Real humans scan through film mentions across the short-messaging community, then group them into good, bad, or indifferent piles to compile a percentage. Of course, most people aren’t going to Twitter about movies they found only reasonably good, but it’s a great conversation starter and, occasionally, a refreshing dip in the schadenfreude pond.”
LifeHacker
IBM aims to cool chips with water
“Scientists at the firm have shown off a prototype device layered with thousands of “hair-width” cooling arteries. They believe it could be a solution to the increasing amount of heat pumped out by chips as they become smaller and more densely packed with components.”
BBC NEWS
The Crowd Takes On Naming Consultants With NameThis
“A company pays $99 to put up a challenge describing the product or entity to be named, the community suggests names and votes for the best ones by investing their allotted ‘Watts.” The people who come up with, influence, or invest the most in the top three names split $80 among themselves, and Kluster keeps the rest as its fee.”
TechCrunch
POIfriend.com, TomTom XL GPS
“POIfriend.com is based out of Toronto and was started by Dave Krawczyk and Bill McLean. It’s essentially a social network that allows users to create and share their own POIs within their group of friends or with the entire community. [...] The real magic happens when you download any and all POIs you aggregate and then transfer those onto your TomTom, Mio, Navman, Magellan or Garmin GPS device. That’s the beauty of this free service. Think of it as a mashup of Yelp, Facebook, and tripadvisor. The community rates and comments on just about every destination imaginable, which includes restaurants, hotels, theaters, and anything else that would be considered a point of interest.”
CrunchGear
SquareClock
“SquareClock is developing a new generation 3D social media application to connect individuals with housing industry. Using SquareClock, anyone will design their house project for free in 3D inside their web browser and then furnish, decorate, arrange, transform it virtually with real products and services from professionals.”
SquareClock
Walk through Italy on a modified treadmill
“This art installation, “Exploded Views – Remapping Firenze” uses two modified large-scale industrial treadmills facing a projection surface where interactive 3D models mixed with photographic landscapes of the Italian city of Florence move by steadily while you walk forward. The visual material in the 3D is a result of experimental technology by the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany which makes it possible to combine cinematographic quality photos with interactive graphics.”
MAKE
Emoticon mask will make you smile
“The default setting is no expression, but if people shake hands with the wearer, the mask smiles. The project was designed to hide personal emotions by eliciting a different set of public facial expressions that could be used to generate conversation and response in public spaces.”
MAKE
NextAction Keeps You Focused on What’s Next
“Freeware application NextAction provides a floating window to keep your current next action in sight to help you jump right back into what you were working on before you were interrupted. It’s a simple single-use application, but it’s also packed with smart functionality—like always-on-top transparency, keyboard shortcuts, and a global hotkey—that make it smarter than a simple Notepad doing the same thing.”
LifeHacker
Newscocoon (Convergeo + Media and Design Lab)
“Newscocoons is a set of pulsating furniture objects that display news – user-generated videoclips, pictures, stories, blogs – fed from geographically dispersed sources. The cocoons glow and breath slowly. Each cocoon tracks specific keywords (such as “body,” “emotive,” “recombinant,” “alienation,” “reality,” etc.), and aggregates content tagged accordingly, created locally and over the Internet, by amateurs and professionals. The global shape of Newscocoons is constantly in flux, emerging from the particular constellation and intensity of information flows from the various sources.“
Pasta&Vinegar
Spoonflower
“Spoonflower gives individuals the power to print their own designs on fabric that they can then use to make quilts, clothes, pillows, blankets, framed textile art and many, many other things that might surprise you.”
Spoonflower
280 Slides: Like Apple Keynote, But Online
“First, 280 North has been designed to make users forget that they aren’t using a desktop application. And they do a good job sustaining that illusion, even though the application is based in JavaScript not Flash. [...] Secondly, 280 North touts how easy it is to download your slideshows in PowerPoint format. They figure that most people shy away from using online tools because ultimately they need to share their slideshows with friends. While Google Docs
can also export to PowerPoint, 280 Slides puts this functionality front and center.”
TechCrunch
TotSpot: Finally, An Activity Stream For Your Baby
“The term “social network” isn’t really appropriate for TotSpot – this isn’t a place for parents to connect with other people. Instead, it’s meant to help parents share updates regarding their children with the people they know. The site’s founders recognize how protective most parents are of their children, and have implemented privacy settings to ensure that their baby’s profiles are secure. Only invited friends and family members are allowed to view profiles, and parents can actually see who has visited their profile in the past week – a feature that would be creepy on any other site, but is perfectly reasonable here.”
TechCrunch
Teach and learn on Facebook’s Supercool School
“The method uses the social networking potential of Facebook to bring together people who want to learn a certain subject, and then adds a teacher. The process starts by creating a request for a class and specifying what you would like to learn. Other users can then join these requests by browsing through the request list, or by being invited by their friends. People who want to teach the class can join by browsing full classes or being invited by the students. The class takes place in a live classroom where they can teach and learn using webcam, voice, powerpoint, chat and whiteboard.”
Smart Mobs
Adopt-a-designer program for crowdfunded fashion
“Through Adopt a Designer, supporters of a participating designer can buy shares (or “elements,” as it calls them) in their work for EUR 14—plus a EUR 1 processing fee—in the hope of sharing in future profits. Once 5,000 such elements have been sold, the designer is given the resulting EUR 70,000 to create a new collection within 6 months. In the meantime, supporters receive a limited edition piece created exclusively for them by the designer. When the new collection launches, all profits from its sale are split equally among the designer, the supporters and Catwalk Genius.”
Springwise
Book publisher for kids
“Tikatok is an online community any child can use to write and illustrate stories, share them with friends and family, and even print them out as real paperback and hardcover books. Children can create a book free-form, or they can use the site’s “StorySpark” templates to help them get started. Words and drawings are easily saved with a book editor that opens right on the site, requiring no extra software to download or install. Children can drag and drop text screens, write their ideas, change fonts and colours, and insert and delete pages at will. They can also easily add their own original artwork by drawing their pictures and scanning and uploading them, or by mailing them into Tikatok.”
Springwise
Brick-and-mortar kiosks sell mobile content
“Based in Shanghai, Duo Guo—a subsidiary of D Mobile Inc.—has developed partnerships with China’s largest retailers and leading global media companies to bring games, ringtones, software and other mobile services to China’s 500 million mobile phone users in a retail setting. Each Duo Guo kiosk is staffed by a salesperson, who can help consumers as they browse for content. Once customers make their selections and pay, the content gets beamed to their phone via Bluetooth.”
Springwise
World’s largest 3D display revealed in 4D spacetime
“it’s the world’s largest 3D LCD panel from VMJ measuring in at 65-inches. The stereoscopic panel developed with support from VisuMotion features a 1920 x 1080 resolution, 6-ms refresh, 120-degree viewing angle, and DVI and RGB inputs. Best of all, no goofy 3D glasses of any type are required thanks to the incorporation of Sharp’s Parallax Barrier viewing technology.”
Engadget
Disney World 3D models on Google Earth
“A virtual version of Walt Disney World has launched today on Google Earth, featuring 3D buildings of most of the major points on Walt Disney World property, including attractions and resorts. Not only can you see what different areas of the parks and resorts look like, but you can also click on them to find out more information, watch a video, and book a trip”
Boing Boing
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