play-doh
here's a great video (play doh video) for Sony's Bravia... apparently it used 2.5 tonnes of plasticine in the making. Hope that's recyclable
here's a great video (play doh video) for Sony's Bravia... apparently it used 2.5 tonnes of plasticine in the making. Hope that's recyclable
This video has to be seen and heard to be believed. This uk ad for the honda civic showcases the most human aspect of the car's quality - its sound.
Not only that - but in the video all the sound design is performed by humans. That is, the sound effects from the commercial that seem to be car sounds are actually a choir.
See for yourself
The composition is by Steve Sidwell. More can be seen on honda's site at www.honda.co.uk/civic
The Hug Shirt from CuteCircuit has been nominated by Time Magazine as one of the best inventions of 2006. This shirt brings haptic technology and wearable communication to the consumers wardrobe.
The wearer of the shirt receives a text hug from their loved one. The mobile phone notifies the shirt via bluetooth and the the shirt gives the wearer a hug!
Cute Circuit says "the new design features a very comfortable mix of smart textiles, cotton and micro-fiber that make it very soft and pleasant to wear. And yes! Is completely washable!"
The Hug Shirt can be seen on the CuteCircuit site
Atrua Tehcnologies are a company that specialize in touch interfaces for mobile. They've recently announced a round of $9m in funding they've received from investors, including funding from Ericsson Venture Parnters.
It will be interesting to see where their latest innovation takes them. Form their press release, they mention mobile biometrics as a potential avenue of research: "Atrua’s focus on developing fingerprint recognition and touch control solutions optimized for mobile handsets continues to pay off".
But will their technology also focus on input and physical feedback? One of the backers is Mosen, who supply keypads and housings to major manufacturers.
Read the Atrua press release
If you have trouble sleeping or suffer from certain disorders such as anxiety, you might want to consider Brain Music Therapy. Dr Galina Mindlin has developed a technique that translates the activity of brain waves and translates them into a musical composition. This is played back as therapy and apparently promotes healing and relaxation in the body.
You can find out more about Brain Music Therapy here.
The WolframTones site allows you to generate your own ringtone in various musical styles by taking simple programs from Wolfram's computational universe, and using music theory and Mathematica algorithms to render them.
This comes from the work of Stephen Wolfram, author of A New Kind of Science. The site is an exercise of midi-math which basically means that the quality of the sound could be better, but it also means that you can easily send your generated composition to your phone and use it as a ringtone.
Access WolframTones here.
here's an example of data visualization using non-traditional methods of feedback, in this case textiles.
The REACH project demos a number of interesting concept prototypes that uses various materials to display information and augment existing communication techniques. These materials include 'cottons, woven linens, conductive materials, uv-sensitive textiles, thermo-chromic materials, & electro-luminescent wire'.
For more info, see the REACH page.
This is a really useful, simple tool for musicians. An online metronome flash application! Metronomes can get quite expensive, so it was only a matter of time before someone came up with something like this, with a clean interface. Very easy to use and very neccessary, especially for poor music students!
Visit the Metronome Online here
'Chicago Calling' is 24 hours of collaboration between artists for performances and interactive projects in Chicago and various countries around the world. This will take place on October 25th and a host of artists have already been announced for the event.
More details have been announced at the Chicago Calling site.
ok, I know it is McD's but you have to admit this is a pretty cool concept in organic marketing... Engineer Leo Burnett has worked with the evilly massive corporation to create a unique billboard that will be on display in Chicago's Wrigleyville area (actually at Clark and Addison).
The board is based on a sundial and the M will travel slowly across the board throughout the day suggesting a different item for you to purchase, in relation to the time of day.
I hate to admit it, but I like it. More at http://chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=21278&bt=burnett&arc=n&searchType=all
The New Scientist's Barry Fox looks at the most interesting patents out there and has seen one recently that may turn out to be compelling from a digital audio and design perspective.
A California inventor has patented a way to make ornamental objects, such as vases or spheres, into speakers. The object is filled with a liquid that contains tiny particles of magnetic metal, which work with a powered magnet at the centre to create the vibrations neccessary to resonate the housing.
Imagine a club where the furniture, ornaments and decor (floors, mirrors?) actually projected the sound. Pretty cool, no? http://www.newscientisttech.com/article.ns?id=dn9520&feedId=online-news_rss20
Apparently engineers in Tokyo are creating a device that can record and playback smells. This device caters to the human's 347 olfactory sensors by synthesizing smells using 96 chemicals that can be mixed to create a range of smells. Smell is, of course a great trigger of memory recall so it would really be interesting to see how this could be used to create a truely sensorially stimulating account of an experience. More at http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/mg19125586.300?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=mg19125586.300 The article contains a quote from Steve Brewster - a great guy I know from the University of Glasgow.
This is interesting, connecting your heart to your driving experience via a sub woofer! It basically amplifies and plays back your heartbeat enabling new types of experiences, including auditory, haptic and visual. More at http://www.takehitoetani.com/hbbb.html
A friend of mine introduced me to the concept of Cymatics recently. This involves the use of sound waves, or vibrations to create physical patterns. It is a kind of physical spectrogram, in a way. Perhaps this can be an explanation for crop circles? See more at wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymatics