Archive for November, 2009
Spin-based electronics gets boost
“A number of laboratory demonstrations has shown that it is possible to create bunches of electrons with their spins aligned and to detect those spins in a range of materials, most importantly silicon. However, they have all been at extremely low temperatures. Now, researchers at the University of Twente in the Netherlands have demonstrated the manipulation and detection of these spin-polarised electrons in silicon at a temperature some 150C warmer than the previous record. “We’ve shown for the first time that this can be done at room temperature, which is obviously something you would need if you wanted to really commercialise this technology,” said Ron Jansen, who led the research. ”
BBC News
Stair Dismount iPhone Game Hands On (Verdict: Sadistic Fun)
“If you’re sadistic and enjoy seeing ragdolls get hurt, this is the game for you. The injury process is made all the more fun by the added Facebook Connect feature Secret Exit put in. You can only choose your friend’s default profile photo, which eliminates a lot of your friends that don’t just use their faces, but still gets you fun results, as seen in the screenshots above.”
Gizmod
OCZ Colossus 1TB Solid State Drive released
“After a lengthy wait, Taiwan’s OCZ Technology has finally released its new Solid State Drive that is Colossus in name and certainly colossal in nature, being the first SSD to offer up to one terabyte of storage. Aimed primarily at the desktop user, the Colossus SSD promises extremely fast read and write speeds of 260MB/s – but it comes at a cost.”
Gizmag
FedEx’s cellular sensor-package for your important shipments
“A SenseAware device riding with a FedEx shipment can provide the following information: Precise temperature readings. A shipment’s exact location. When a shipment is opened or if the contents have been exposed to light. Real-time alerts and analytics between trusted parties regarding the above vital signs of a shipment ”
Boing Boing
Website recreates London’s West End
“Near London is an exact 3D copy of the capital’s main shopping area; Regent Street, Bond Street, and Oxford Street. Piccadilly Circus is there as well. It’s been designed to promote online retail and users will be able to find a store’s website by clicking on its digital shopfront. Selecting an item in the window brings up details for that product. So far, dozens of big name companies have signed up. The people behind Near London say they hope to get every West End retailer on board.”
BBC
Skin Deep – The Face of Your Dreams Is a Beauty App Away
“I’m not a big makeup person, but the app looked kind of fun,” said Ms. Disher, who downloaded MakeUp from the Apple App Store several weeks ago. Using its facial recognition technology, she was able to apply rounds of pixelated gloss onto her pixelated lips (on an uploaded photo of herself) until she found a perfect posy pink. “The next day I went to the drugstore, matched the color to two glosses,” she said. “One had too much shimmer, so I bought the other and now I wear it all the time”
NYTimes.com
A peek at the future of interactive storytelling?
“While it’s just a concept at this point, you can see how it can make a new kind of storytelling available to the masses in a way that wouldn’t have seemed possible not that long ago.”
EverydayUX
Man to marry his video game girlfriend this Sunday
“The man, who calls himself SAL9000, was so in love with Nene Anegasaki that he decided to marry her and take her on a honeymoon to Guam. Of course, this means that he literally just took his Nintendo DS to Guam… while there, he took photos, livecast their adventures on popular video-sharing site Nico Nico Douga, and documented their adventures using the augmented reality iPhone app Sekai Camera.”
Boing Boing
FunMail: Talk Through Photos
“FunMail keeps a stable of over 50,000 images from a variety of creative commons sources like Flickr. When you enter your message, the app’s “Media Brain” will give you a selection of five different photos to choose from. Pick the image, and the app automatically sticks your text into the picture and sends it off. An example of a conversation held this way is shown in the photo above”
i4u
The Future: Embedding Data in the Everyday
“Imagine a world where data becomes the everyday, simply embedded in what you normally do. It’s really not far off if you think about it. We use charts, graphs, and viz to make important decisions with investments, businesses, and to stay informed on the news, so why not use it in our own lives?”
FlowingData
Inductive Charging…Through Wood
“Using a hacked Powermat, this plank of wood becomes a full capable inductive charger. Why do I find this so superior to the original product? Most tables are built from wood, and this technique would allow a tabletop, with no special gimmicks on top, to charge your gadgets.”
Gizmodo
Personalized books starring a child’s favourite toy
“Parents or other gift-givers simply upload three photos of their child’s security blanket or favourite toy: one head-on, one profile shot and one alternative view. From there, the company stages the “doudou” in various adventures and situations, such as sitting on the back of a cow or riding the Paris metro. Seven story themes are available, including “The day of my security blanket” and “My security blanket protects the planet.” Each spiral-bound, hardcover book costs EUR 29.90 and is printed sustainably in France.”
Springwise
Batteryless remote powered by humans
“Energy harvesting devices are nothing new, but this one seems interesting because it is apparently efficient enough to work off of the vibrations caused by pressing the buttons on it. They claim that it uses piezoelectric elements, which can generate electric current when bent or deformed, to capture the kinetic energy of your button press.”
Make
Qualcomm Ebook Display Ups the Ante with Full Color and Video
“Qualcomm has developed a 5.7-inch (1,024×768) display for ebook readers that not only renders color and video; it does so with enough power efficiency to challenge a black and white, still-frame Kindle. The “mirasol” technology mimics iridescent butterfly wings by deploying charged, color-inducing membranes over a layer of mirror. It’s a technology that, if integrated into Kindles today as-is, would increase battery life by an estimated 20%. Instead, Qualcomm uses that extra power efficiency to drive color and higher refresh rates for smooth video. They contend that a Kindle with their more media-capable display could run about a day with its current battery.”
Gizmodo
Signature of consciousness captured in brain scans
“It turns out that there is a similar pattern of neural activity each time we become conscious of the same picture, but not if we process information from the image unconsciously. These contrasting patterns of activity can now be detected via brain scans, and could one day help determine if patients with brain damage are conscious. They might even be used to probe consciousness in animals. “It’s very exciting work,” says neuroscientist Raphaël Gaillard of the University of Cambridge, who was not involved in the work. “The use of a reproducibility measure to disentangle conscious and non-conscious processes is genuinely new”
New Scientist
Medical debut for smart band aid
“He described the plaster as a “platform” that can be loaded with all kinds of sensors that can keep an eye on other bodily indicators, such as glucose levels, blood pressure in different parts of the body and other fleeting signs that show a patient is recovering or getting worse. It could also be used as a location monitor so staff can keep an eye on the whereabouts of patients or those at risk of falls. Professional sports stars were also interested in using the device, said Mr Errey, so they can fine tune their training regime.”
BBC NEWS
Electrical Folklore
“The juxtapositions of spectacular landforms and immersive, forested environments with these subtle networks of lighting effects—and the accompanying idea that there might be a power source shining away somewhere deep within the natural world—even brings to mind Archigram’s design for a deep-woods electrical outlet disguised inside an artificial log.”
BLDGBLOG
Visualizing a Day in the Life of the MBTA
“Linear charts were used to display the activity of stations on a given line to show the geographic relation of activity throughout the course of the day. Circular 24-hour clocks were made for individual lines and stations in order to see the relative activity throughout the day. Pie charts were used to visualize rush hour commutes on each line, showing the contrast of activity during morning and evening rush hours. Histograms were used to show the breakdown of daily activity in a linear fashion. The final layouts were designed in Illustrator, and visualizations were combined in order to create the 5 individual MBTA line posters and overall MBTA poster.”
information aesthetics
Egypt launches Arabic web domain
“Tarek Kamel said the new domain name would be “.masr” written in the Arabic alphabet. It translates as “.Egypt”. “It is a great moment for us… The internet now speaks Arabic,” Mr Kamel said.”
BBC NEWS
A Product (You Think) You’ll Never Need
“The $395 Optelec Compact Mini is about the size of a small entry-level global-positioning unit. By clicking a button, a user can view a printed page on its 3.5-inch LCD screen in one of three magnifications, with or without LED illumination. To help those who are unable to see all contrasts, objects can be displayed with one of several backgrounds and text colors, either standard black on white, or white on black, yellow on black, or yellow on blue. If the user can see an object only when it is close to his or her eyes, a still image “snapshot” can be taken and the screen then brought closer to the face.”
NYTimes.com
Nanodevices Bend under the Force of Light
“A team of researchers has fabricated a micron-scale device that deforms significantly under the force of light, a technology that could form the basis for tiny light-actuated switches or filters in future optical devices.”
Scientific American
Bringing Impermanence To The Digital World
“An entire generation is emerging that may know nothing but cloud computing, and we’re increasingly becoming accustomed to a world where all data on the internet will last forever. Temporary.cc explores the idea of how impermanence can be surprisingly meaningful in this context; with each unique visitor, the site destroys a part of itself and will eventually become a blank white page. The idea is that the site constantly exists in a state where it cannot be archived or experienced in its current form except in the very moment.”
PSFK
Crowds map filming locations across the world
“Filmaps is rapidly creating a crowd-powered database of filming locations around the world. Users can search by location or film title to bring up a Google Map that features location photos from Panoramio and videos from YouTube. Since its launch in January this year 998 films have been mapped in 2363 locations. Filmaps adds social elements through Facebook and Twitter connections, as well as embeddable location widgets.”
Springwise
EyeWriter Allows Man To Paint Despite Paralysis
“the incredible people behind the EyeWriter Initiative are making sure that not even paralysis, like Tony’s, stops someone from making such a creative contribution.The project is an open-source collaboration which seeks to continue building on their low-cost eye-tracking system and they’ve even got instructions for a DIY version of the EyeWriter.”
Gizmodo
The bathroom scale evolves with wireless and Twitter integration
“The scales are capable of uploading to a Twitter account to share progress, get advice on how to improve things further and presumably motivate you to keep at it and avoid the embarrassment of piling on the pounds after a particularly heavy weekend.”
Gizmag
Use Your Own Digital Music Library to Generate Enemies for Symphony – Music library game
“games like this could help sell music in weird ways if users are posting that certain songs get them certain levels that are really great. A crap song could make for a really good level. At the very least, you’ll be able to explore your music library in a weird way.”
Gizmodo
cyclopedia
“by moving your iphone around, wikipedia entries will begin to pop-up. these entries tell you about what you are looking at in reality and link to the full entries on wikipedia. the application also allows you to search wikipedia through google maps, pinpointing each entry as a physical location. there are currently 65,000 entries in wikipedia that have geotagged but any user can add an entry at anytime”
Design Boom
With Fujitsu’s new phone, the screen and the keyboard get a divorce
“The detachable screen communicates with the keyboard via Bluetooth, and the keyboard side has both a QWERTY and a number pad. Oh yeah, and they threw in a pico projector”
Core77
StuffBuff: Real-Time Auctions With A Viral Twist
“…it’s looking to combine the real-time nature of sites like Twitter with traditional auction sites like eBay. […] A standard StuffBuff auction (called a ‘Live Haggle’) looks quite similar to a chat room, with a few key differences. The top of the chat window shows a ‘time left’ indicator that lets you know when the auction ends, and there’s a bidding window below the chat box where you enter how much you’re willing to pay (entering a bid is considered binding). Whenever you create an auction, you’re responsible for staying active in the chat as viewers come online and bid and ask questions (because of this auctions only last a matter of hours or minutes, as opposed to the day or week-long auctions you’ll find on eBay). And because of the public nature of the chat everything is transparent — you don’t have to worry about back channel discussions. Aside from the real-time nature of the auction, what sets StuffBuff apart from tradional auction sites is the potentially viral nature of their auctions. Any time you create an auction, you can embed it in your website to share with friends. Visitors will be able to bid on these auctions directly from your site (they’ll be able to use Facebook Connect or Twitter OAuth to sign up, though these aren’t implemented yet). Payments are done through Paypal’s payment platform.”
TechCrunch
One Book, Many Readings: Visualizing ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ Books
“Christian Swinehart subdivided these ‘narrative’ and ‘endings’ groups based on the number of choices offered (e.g. a ‘branching’ page or a ‘choiceless’ story page) or the goodness of the ending (e.g. from ‘great’ to ‘catastrophic’), and then color-coded the pages accordingly. The resulting frequency dot plots, spanning about 12 different CYOA books published between 1979 and 1986, show a gradual decline in the number of endings and a decline in the number of choices available in the books. Other visualizations include distribution graphs (all pages lined up in a single row by group), branching decision frequency graphs (pages close together in the story flow are close together in the map, more frequent paths are brighter), and animated story paths (growing arcs depicting the possible page jumps within a book).”
information aesthetic
Nissan licenses self-healing paint for mobile phones
“Self-healing paint has been with us on automobiles since Nissan released its “Scratch Guard Coat” in 2005. Scratch Guard is a highly elastic resin that self-heals fine scratches and is capable of restoring the vehicle’s paint surfaces overnight or up to a week’s time in more severe cases. Now Japan’s major Telco, NTT DoCoMo, has announced it will license Scratch Shield for use on mobile phones as a value-add feature for Japanese customers.”
Nissan licenses self-healing paint for mobile phones
New micro-mapping software lets travelers plot points of interest while they walk
“London-based software toolkit maker CloudMade, Inc. by the end of this month will introduce a free iPhone application called Mapzen Points of Interest (POI) Collector that lets mappers upload information from wherever they can get a cell phone connection. The company is also launching at the same time a Web-based version of Mapzen designed to provide an interface to map editing that’s easier than the one that currently exists for OpenStreetMap.”
Scientific American
Judging a Book by Its Odor
“An old book’s familiar musty smell is due to hundreds of different volatile organic compounds gassing out from the paper and other materials, such as the binding. The particular blend of compounds results from specific degradation pathways. Conventional analysis techniques require small samples of the work for testing, further damaging the book. But analyzing the gases coming off of the old books is noninvasive. The researchers identified 15 organic compounds that made good markers to track the condition of books. They note that their system could be used to evaluate the type of document, its present condition and its likely future, thus helping preservationists map a strategy to save historical works.”
Scientific American Podcast
The CLOUD
“The CLOUD proposes an entirely new form of observation deck,connecting visitors to both the whole of London and the whole of the world, immersing them in the euphoric gusts of weather and digital data. Each individual footstep on the ascent to the CLOUD participates in a vast collective energy-harvesting effort. Everyone from around the world can contribute to the Cloud – whether by visiting or by sponsoring an LED, helping to keep the Olympic lamp aflame”
cityofsound
New PC to encourage older users
“The simplified desktop – called SimplicITy – has just six buttons directing users to basic tasks such as e-mail and chat. The computer comes pre-loaded with 17 video tutorials from television presenter Valerie Singleton. More than 6 million people over the age of 65 have never used the internet, according to government figures.”
BBC NEWS
PLOT Makes Data Stylish With Fashionable Jewelry
“Fluctuating prices of gold, silver, oil and lead are used to generate the graphic elements within the jewelery.”
PSFK
A.W.E. Robotic Wall Automatically Creates The Workspace You Need
“Essentially, AWE is a programmable wall with varied displays that can switch between six configurations just by activating a proximity sensor. For example, when the wall is hanging overhead like a ceiling, the act of standing up triggers the sensor and instructs the wall to move out of the way. The project is in it’s infancy, but it is easy to see how future applications could lead to a whole range of dynamic, multi-functional furniture that automatically reacts to its environment.”
Gizmodo
Layer-additive “welding” 3D fabrication
“Dr. Taminger is prone to market EBF3 by analogy to Star Trek style “replicator” technology, which is nothing but shameless hype. Still, the basic idea is an interesting twist on extrusion-based 3D printing technologies (although there’s not really any “extrusion” going on), and is under development with an eye towards space-based fabrication. Working in outer space would eliminate the system’s major ground-based shortcoming, which is the requirement for maintaining a vacuum or inert atmosphere to prevent oxidation of the weld.”
Make
Typekit
“Add a line of code to your pages and choose from hundreds of fonts. Simple, bulletproof, standards compliant, accessible, and totally legal”
Typekit
wiiwaa
“wiiwaa is a new interactive video game which uses a small stuffed animal as the game’s controller. the game is design by zoink games exclusively for the nintendo wii. the game utilizes the wii’smotion-sensing controller implanted inside a stuffed puppet of the game’s main character. the user shakes and bounces the puppet around, as the on-screen version mimics the same actions. the puppet can be thrown, slingshot and moved in a variety of other ways all of which are acted out on screen.”
wiiwaa
Making Concrete Interactive
“The material is sensitive to ambient light levels, able to take note of the luminosity distribution across its surface. The incoming light level data is then routed to a computer. This turns the concrete into a kind of control surface where varying degrees of illumination can be used to direct different audio and visual outputs.”
PSFK
20 iPods Cluster Into One, Big, Interactive Display
“Their giant hive display can begin a chain reaction when someone touches one iPod, or it’s even possible to “drop” some items between iPods (I don’t read that as full drag and drop capability).”
Gizmodo
Infractor
“Infractor is an interactive, artistic application that has been developed for a Multitouch-table. It is based on the information of the New York Times Online. The information can be searched, filtered and read by putting physical objects on the interactive surface.”
New ways of interaction
Forget iPhone MMS, Share 100 Pictures In An Instant With Knocking
“With it, you can pretty much instantaneously share up to 100 photos at once between two iPhones. This works by establishing a connection between the two phones, during which one user selects another user with the app and “knocks” the pictures over to them.”
TechCrunch
Web Open Font Format Will Change Web Design
“WOFF combines the work of Leming and Blokland had done on embedding a variety of useful font metadata with the font resource compression that Kew had developed. The end result is a format that includes optimized compression that reduces the download time needed to load font resources while incorporating information about the font’s origin and licensing. The format doesn’t include any encryption or DRM, so it should be universally accepted by browser vendors—this should also qualify it for adoption by the W3C.”
Max Kiesler
Laskas / Gladwell
“I am building a small visualization tool to look at the similarities and differences between two articles published in October about head injuries and the NFL: “Game Brain” by Jeanne Marie Laskas – Oct. 10, 2009, “Offensive Play” by Malcolm Gladwell – Oct. 19, 2009″
Flickr
The Fun Theory
“This site is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better.”
The Fun Theory
Claim virtual turf with real-life balls
“Want to claim your city as your own? Competing with a rival gang for turf, and want to avoid messy knife fights? Well now you can, thanks to Urban Defender. Working over a short time period, a team of students from Zurich University of Arts built a system to claim buildings by throwing a specially equipped ball at them. Impacts are detected by an accelerometer connected to an Arduino, which is wirelessly connected to a Beagle board which uses a GPS to coordinate the hit to a specific address”
Make
Absent-minded Robots Remember What Matters
“ActSimple draws on two facets of human memory: time-based decay, or the way that memories disappear over time, and interference, which is the failure to recall information due to other memories competing for attention. ActSimple assigns different pieces of data values depending on how often they are used, and how similar it is to other pieces of information.”
Technology Review
Does Technology Reduce Social Isolation?
“It turns out the size of the average American’s social circle is smaller today than 20 years ago, as measured by the number of self-reported confidants in a person’s life. Yet contrary to popular opinion, use of cellphones and the Internet is not to blame, according to a new study released Wednesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. In fact, people who regularly use digital technologies are more social than the average American and more likely to visit parks and cafes, or volunteer for local organizations, according to the study, which was based on telephone interviews with a national sample of 2,512 adults living in the continental United States.”
NYTimes.com
A Battery-Free Implantable Neural Sensor
“electrical engineers at the University of Washington have developed an implantable neural sensing chip that needs less power. Other wireless medical devices, such as cochlea or retinal implants, rely on inductive coupling, which means the power source needs to be centimeters away. The new sensor platform, called NeuralWISP, draws power from a radio source up to a meter away.”
Technology Review
App delivers location-based info from drivers to drivers
“A personally tailored audio stream not only provides up-to-the-minute traffic info, but also features “shouts”—15 second snippets recorded through the application by other drivers in the area. The idea is that drivers can help each other out by sharing reports on road conditions, extending the real-time connectivity that people have on Facebook or Twitter. Furthering the social element, drivers can belt out tunes in the Caraoke Room, or vent their road rage in the Bad Driver Shout Room.”
Springwise
Personal data storage with emergency access
“Orggit’s unique selling point is the In Case of Emergency (ICE) card that it supplies with every subscription. Using the card, medical personnel can call a dedicated helpline and quote the member’s ID code to gain access to all of their medical vitals, which could be a lifesaver. In case of a lost wallet, the good samaritan who finds it can also call the helpline and Orggit will arrange an owner-wallet reunion.”
Springwise
The lamp that runs on free electricity – from the phone socket
“The lamp is so energy efficient its eight white LED lights are powered by the trickle of electricity flowing from a RJ11 socket – or garden-variety telephone socket. This means that, even if you’ve fallen behind on your electricity bill and the power has been cut off, you can still enjoy some late night reading.”
Gizmag
The Litl Webbook: A more social computing device
“A laptop is, like cell phones and MP3 players, a pretty solitary device; you might show something on any of these things to your friends once in a while, but 99% of the time it’s just you in front of it, or vice versa. A Boston-based startup called Litl is releasing a laptop-like device called the Webbook that is, by virtue of its physical design, inherently more social. For starters, it’s got a hinge that enables the keyboard to go all the way around, lending it the form factor of an easel.”
Core77
Wonderwall’s Uniquely Fluid Site Reacts to Mouse and Browser History
“In addition to showcasing an outstanding portfolio of inspirational design, the Wonderwall page features a uniquely fluid, color-coded navigation menu that reacts dynamically to the user’s mouse, changing its form based on browser history”
PSFK
Mind control with sound and light
“Arizona State University researchers are using ultrasound pulses to stimulate activity deep inside the brain from the outside. The sound waves cause brain cells to spew certain chemical neurotransmitters, ultimately resulting in physical movements or other effects. The technique may also be used to lower the brain’s metabolic rate after an injury to reduce secondary damage.”
Boing Boing
Sweep Technology touch interface for hearing aids
“Starkey’s new “Sweep Technology” replaces all the traditional hearing aid buttons and dials with a touch surface that allows users to adjust volume and change settings with a sweep or touch of a finger. The touch interface means there is no mechanical movement required for activation, no push buttons that oxidize and fail with time, and no openings around the volume control wheel that allow moisture and dirt to enter the hearing aid. The sweep surface is a single seamless control, giving patients full access to volume, memory and standby controls.”
Gizmag
A Tweet Unleashes Vitriol on a User in Britain
“In the realm of Twitter insults, it was at the far end of mild. “Much as I admire and adore the chap, they are a bit … boring,” a Twitter user called brumplum wrote Saturday, speaking of the tweets of Stephen Fry, the British writer, actor and television personality. But that little tweet set off a frenzy of vitriolic attacks and counterattacks on Twitter, drawing an untold number of people into an increasingly charged debate and thrusting brumplum — in reality a man from Birmingham, England, named Richard — unhappily into the public’s angry glare.”
NYTimes.co
Someone Stop The Fastest Robot Packager in the World at Once
“For some reason, I can’t stop looking at the frenzy Adept Quattro robopackager, which reaches more than 300 cycles per minute”
Gizmodo
Infectious Now Lets You Print Your Own Designs For Custom Wall Decals, iPhone Skins, And More
“until now, customers could only choose from the Infectious catalog of art work. That offers a pretty good selection, but obviously being able to craft your own design is going to make the service appealing to a much broader customer base. Users who want to put their own artwork on their items will have the chance to do so, and businesses could potentially create their own branded skins (perhaps to give away in promotions).”
TechCrunch
iPhone-operated car
“Researchers from the Freie Universität Berlin’s Artificial Intelligence Group hacked the van to be semi-autonomous for DARPA’s 2007 Urban Grand Challenge. Now Appirion UG, a mobile app development firm spun out of the AI Group, built an iPhone app to remote control the van. No idea why it’s a Dodge and not, say, a Mercedes.”
Boing Boing
Behavioral Genetics in the Court Room
“A court in Italy has shortened the prison sentence of a convicted murderer due to the prisoner’s heightened genetic predisposition for violence, according to Nature News. Specifically, the appeals court judge held that because the prisoner had five genetic mutations linked to violent behavior, as well as brain scan abnormalities, “would make him particularly aggressive in stressful situations.” Though this isn’t the first time that attorneys have tried to use genetic data to sway verdicts, this marks the first time a court has factored genetics into its holding, and in the process, it opens up some huge questions about how we’ll navigate genetic data in our daily and instituional worlds.”
The Institute For The Future
Storyplay: Nokia and Sesame Street create video conferencing in a book
“Researchers from Nokia’s Research Center have been working with the Sesame Street Workshop to develop an interactive learning experience that grandparents and young children can enjoy no matter the distance between them. The Storybook features a wooden frame that opens out like a book. The frame contains sensors that detect the title and open page of a real story book placed on it. Above the book placement area are two touchscreen, Linux-powered Internet tablets. These house a webcam, speakers and a microphone. They’re connected to each other via Bluetooth and to the page sensing hardware via USB. The left screen is for Sesame Street character Elmo and the right screen features a “custom GUI video conferencing application built with PyQT and the open-source telepathy stack.”"
Gizmag
Nebul.us: A New Way To Visualize And Share How You’re Spending Your Time Online
“By default, the site will present your recorded browsing history in a donut shape, with each site visited represented by a colored band. The shape and position of these bands is meant to recall a standard clock face — the length and position of a band corresponds to the time you visited a site. Along with your browser history, you can also import your Tweets and songs played on last.fm which are displayed as parallel bands. It’s fun to play around with, but you can also switch into a more standard list view if you’d like.”
TechCrunch
Urban Cursor by Sebastian Campion
“A 3 dimensional oversized computer cursor (pointer), was placed on a square in Figueres, Catalunya during the Ingràvid cultural festival. Visitors to the square could move the cursor, a GPS tracked the movements and the coordinates were mapped.”
Mocoloco
The next step for Twitter Lists — Entire countries
“Social media consultants Simplyzesty started using Twitter Lists to list blogs. However, a brainwave has lead them to take Twitter Lists to their logical conclusion: creating lists of Twitter users in entire countries. They’ve launched a Twitter list for the UK and the list of users in Ireland is currently going crazy. They call it “crowdsourcing populations”. Who knows – this could end up being a sort of crowd-sourced yellow pages/people directory”
TechCrunch
Carbon Zero Road Block System by Park, Jaeyong
“This system is composed of several elements. The only one you’re going to see is the blocks on the road. As you drive over these blocks, the pressure from your vehicle pushes the blocks down, creating kinetic energy. N-type silicon and P-type silicone work together like a battery, creating a DC-direct current. This energy is then turned into AC-alternating current, which can be used for powering electric devices in the homes and businesses near the road.”
Yanko Design
Software to detect objects inside videos
“Researchers at the University of Missouri (MU) are developing software that would enable computers to perform video analysis tasks, such as alerting emergency services if a video surveillance camera detects a person falling and not getting up. The software could also be used to search inside videos and look for certain objects, such as basketballs or footballs, hence reducing the time taken to locate a certain game or scene.”
Gizmag
Implantable Silicon-Silk Electronics
“By building thin, flexible silicon electronics on silk substrates, researchers have made electronics that almost completely dissolve inside the body. So far the research group has demonstrated arrays of transistors made on thin films of silk. While electronics must usually be encased to protect them from the body, these electronics don’t need protection, and the silk means the electronics conform to biological tissue. The silk melts away over time and the thin silicon circuits left behind don’t cause irritation because they are just nanometers thick.”
Technology Review
An App so You’ll Never Forget
“Smart.fm is one of several companies selling software designed to help users remember. The company’s algorithms were inspired by research that shows people remember information more effectively they try to memorize it at key times, says founder and chairman Andrew Smith Lewis. Those algorithms determine how often to present a piece of information to the user and in what context. For example, a completely new word and its translation are shown frequently, and a user is asked relatively easy questions about them, designed to jog the memory. But once the user has demonstrated the ability to recall that word and its meaning, this information will appear less often.”
Technology Review
Sonic Fabric Neckties Are Actually Playable
“The music may be horrible, but if you rub a tape head over these ties you can actually hear jumbled sound collages recorded from the NYC metro system. This is possible because the ties are 50% audio cassette tape.”
Gizmodo
MIT Develops Witty Robot Sidekick (For Your Car)
“Essentially an adorable little robot that sits on your dashboard and talks to you, the AIDA is being built to recognize human facial expressions and emotional queues. Basically, they’re creating a robot that knows to shut up and back off when you start to get angry at it. If some stupid dashboard droid started criticizing MY driving in the middle of agonizing gridlock traffic, I’d be sorely tempted to bludgeon it to death with my laptop bag. The AIDA will work with the driver, learning his patterns and preferences and routes and finding ways to help him enjoy his drive more. If the robot learns (through GPS/Internet link-ups) that your normal route to work is blocked, he’ll suggest another that will save you time and hassle. If you’re scrimping pennies for gas money, he’ll give you advice on how to improve your mileage.”
I4U
Mobile Magic – First Disney Parks Mobile App Details
“While wandering the parks, your location will be indicated by a white circle. Then it’s simple to scroll through content and find it on the map via a “getting there” option. The map zooms out and allows you to see your location and exactly where the character greeting or restaurant can be located.”
Disney Parks Blog
Fractured Reality: Bizarre 3-D Photo Sculptures
“For each sculpture, Gwon took hundreds of photographs of a single model and layered them over mannequins for a result that is sometimes true to the form of the model, and sometimes altogether different, veering into bizarre proportions.”
WebUrbanist
