This is very cool. Instead of using the mouse or keyboard to control the dials in Reason or Final Cut (or any other knob twiddling software) Girtonlabs have created magnetic knobs which you can stick onto your computer screen:
You then twist the knobs to control your software! Very nice, much more satisfying that trying to twist knobs and dials with the mouse.
Powercursor allows you to simulate haptic feedback creating a tactile experience in GUIs.
Simluate pressure, stickiness and roughness in your GUIs!
There is a lot of cool work being done with wearable computers delivering real work haptic experiences. Check out http://www.cutecircuit.com. You give your partner a hug whilst they are wearing the shirt, the shirt remembers the pressure of the hug, then when you are away on business your partner can press a button and recreate the hug!
Philips have created a shirt which promises to deliver “emotional immersion“; shivers up the spine and muscle contraction.
Beautiful projection from phedhex made by beaming light onto an array of vertical wires, giving the illusion of 3d objects floating in space:
What’s even cooler is that the entire project is open source so you can build your own!
I love the idea of this poster. Instead of tearing off paper tabs from the bottom you break off stakes to kill pesky vampires!
Trueblood promotional poster in New Zealand
Apparently all the stakes were actually nailed down, but it’s still a cool idea.
But what about zombies? How do we protect our brains (or our second brains)? In Texas they’ve come up with an excellent solution:
I just came across these beautiful kinetic sculptures; robots only powered by the wind:
Check out Strandbeest for more info.
For an acoustic version of this listen to Aeolian Wind Harps: musical instruments played by the wind.
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency researchers have got one step closer to developing programmable matter – think the T1000 liquid metal!
A material that can ... transport particles and assemble shapes.
From the DARPA press release:
Professor David R. Liu’s Harvard team is relying on DNA base pairing as a sort of molecular Velcro to program the assembly or disassembly of “smart” materials. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Professor Daniela Rus has created an innovative computational origami of two- and three-dimensional functional structures, through the “folding” of matter.
http://www.darpa.mil/news/2009/ProgrMatter.pdf
In the future perhaps downloadable design will become a reality for all worldy objects. Perhaps you could download the latest shoe design into your pool of matter and see it assembled before your own eyes! Imagine if you could download physical objects from the internet like food or drink – some crazy possibilities.
I guess we are a step closer now to all being turned into grey goo…
I like the idea of crowdsourcing, why use your own brain when you have access to everyone else’s!
OpenAd and CrowdSpring are becoming more and more popular with clients. Post your brief, get sent loads of ideas then pick your favourite!
Mixx has launched an interesting section of it’s site:
User-driven social media website Mixx is offering marketers a chance to trial their online ads against its top members for peer-reviewed feedback before launching ‘the big spend’.
Advertisers, such as Orange, can upload up to five creative executions in Sifter at a time, where over the course of a week, Mixx users rank the overall content on a scale of one to five.
Users also provide qualitative feedback for the ads, their likes and dislikes, while advertisers receive the data along with the gender, age and general interest snapshot of those who voted.
http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/902019/Mixx-sparks-dialogue-marketers-consumers/
It would be nice to think this could result in a ‘Ruby on Rails’ type development approach to advertising. 37 Signals (Ruby on Rails founders) are famed for delivering short bursts of code onto the web, which might not be completely finished, which lets their userbase define where development should head next.
Finally bragster (though not technically a crowdsourcing site) lets you setup dares with its online community. Tango did a fun bet recently turning their logo upside down.
Everyware, or wearable computing, can provoke interesting reactions. Does it engender a community spirit or scare everyone into staying at home?
A positive viewpoint:
Take the popular Nike+ system. By putting a small computer chip in your running shoes and synching it to your iPod, you can track your run, monitor your progress, and perhaps most importantly, connect with a community of runners.
http://johnnyholland.org/magazine/2009/04/the-power-of-personal-informatics/
A negative viewpoint:
Police regularly use information on the adult Oyster card system to get details about passenger movements. BBC London has learned that in the past year they made at least 3,000 requests for information.
….Transport for London [has] made it mandatory for children aged between 11 and 18 to carry an Oyster photocard in order to gain free travel. A spokesperson for TfL said the card holder was required to abide by its Behaviour Code.
A young person with criminal convictions, warnings, reprimands and other sanctions committed on the public transport network could have the right to free travel withdrawn, the spokesman said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7473959.stm
So how long before ‘Big brother is watching you’ becomes a reality? Not long, in fact it’s already happening.
http://www.verichipcorp.com/ supply implanted RFID chips for ‘Patient identification’, ‘Infant protection’, ‘Wander protection’ and ‘Asset tracking’. Hmm, Asset tracking sounds handy, I might get my Flash developers in work implanted…
Here’s an interface made of mud!
“By sloshing, squishing, pulling, punching, etc, in a tub of mud (yes, wet dirt), users control games, simulators, and expressive tools; interacting with a computer in a new, completely organic, way. Born out of a motivation to close the gap between our bodies and the digital world, the Mud Tub frees the traditional computer interaction model of it’s rigidity, allowing humans to use their highly developed sense of touch, and creative thinking skills in a more natural way.”
http://tomgerhardt.com/mudtub/
This would be awesome at a music festival. Glastonbury is ridiculously muddy anyway…
Interesting Article from the excellent (though slightly overwhelming at times*) Brand Republic site.
Talking advertising posters could be put into development in the near future, with the development of speakers made out of paper, suitable for thin devices such as LCD screens.
Rolls of paper speakers have already been produced by a research company in Taiwan and the group’s engineers say they will be used in cars starting from next year.
Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute is planning to introduce the new technology with a three-story-high banner than can play music at an upcoming exhibition in Taipei.
The researchers aim to be able to mass produce standard poster-size speakers at $20 each.
The company hopes the technology will also attract film companies wanting to produce posters with a soundtrack or excerpts from the movie.
Bill Wilson, the Outdoor Advertising Association’s operations director, said the low cost of the speakers would make the technology attractive to media owners: “I assume media owners would be very interested if the technology allows for cost-efficient delivery.”
Wilson warned that media owners who embrace such technology would have to tackle issues such as noise levels and location.
http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/901234/Talking-posters-horizon-thanks-paper-speaker-breakthrough/
Would be nice to combine this with motion sensors or rfid readers for a Minority Report style experience.
For a more hi-tech version of interactive posters/shop windows see: http://www.visualplanet.biz/services/retail/shopfront.php or http://www.clearchannel.co.uk/digital/
* After having a month with my head in project delivery mode and with no time to check my rss feeds I cleared out 2000 unread messages recently!