I used to write about all kinds of digital goodies here. Now sometimes I write about UX and product innovation here. If you can somehow find me more time to write — I'd be happy to do it more. :)
Heyho. I am thrilled and honored to tell you that POKE has been nominated in the Mobile and Experiences category of this year’s Webby Awards. We want to win and we need your vote!
The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. The online community, determine the winners of The People’s Voice by voting for the nominated work that you believe to be the best in each category. That’s where you come in. Thanks for all your tweets, shares and votes!
Welp, these sweet (and very creative) toys brought a lil’ sunshine to a rainy Monday in CT. The video and the toys are the product of Beth Algieri and Jonny Plummer, two directors / designers with a common passion making awesome. Hope you enjoi!
This is the result of the Open Innovation experiment. It is an experience video showing the future of screen technology with stretchable screens, transparent screens and e-ink displays, to name a few.
OK, bold headline. But holy shit balls this is awesome. Meet “A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter (2009) - Caleb Larsen”.
What is it you ask? A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter by Caleb Larsen is a physical sculpture that is perptually attempting to auction itself on eBay. Here is the ebay auction, the current bid is $4,250. Yep.
Every ten minutes the black box pings a server on the internet via the ethernet connection to check if it is for sale on the eBay. If its auction has ended or it has sold, it automatically creates a new auction of itself.
Rad, right? If a person buys it on eBay, the current owner is required to send it to the new owner. The new owner must then plug it into ethernet, and the cycle repeats itself.
I’m seriously going to be thinking about how awesome this is all day. And now you are too.
Is your kid more like more like Paul Teutul than Bob the Builder? Then peep this.
From Today and Tomorrow: The Japanese retail brand MUJI and LEGO teamed up to develop a set of 4 different boxes. Inside those boxes you’ll find the classic LEGO bricks but also a few sheets of paper. No big deal. But when you also have the right punch hole tool, you can combine both to create something new. I really like this concept. You can order a set here (when you speak sone Japanese).
The following is an homage to an awesome post I found over at Rubbishcorp. Go read it. Or read it here. Or whatever. Either way, its the best compilation of the affects of Augmented Reality on your fancy pants mobile device. It’s about to become as big a deal as Ron Burgundy…
Augmented Reality technology isn’t new, but it is taking on a whole new meaning in your mobile device. As positioning and recognition technology strengthens it will find a much more mass audience. Devices sporting geotagging, triangulation, recognition, wireless and compass technology have raised the virtual/physical mobile experience bar as they all work seemlessly together (behind the scenes) to now serve everyone with masses of information layered over the ‘real’ world.
No longer will you have to haplessly unfold a map at a museum, search endlessly for the semolina in a supermarket or not know exactly how much further to go before you reach your a bar, train, resturant, etc.
Your face is even free game! This TAT demo shows your social network(s) profile, media, personal data etc. all hovering around your noggin’ when someone points an at you.
Nokia are in on the act with their indoor location systems as well as Point & Find and apple has also raised the bar by getting involved with this little beauty.
Add to that ViPR technology which has been around for a while and can recognize actual objects (via a connected database) and best not forge RFID that registers objects within close proximity and again can pull data from a connected online source.
Time people spend with mobile continues to rise and compete with other sources as a direct result the increasing usefulness of the technology in making connections in the ‘physical’ space. And the raft of Augmented Reality applications that make use of a devices enhanced positioning and recognition capabilities are not limited to phones - increasingly gaming devices and MP3 players use the technology.
Screen-based experiences are increasingly overwhelming our experience of the physical world making, further blurring the lines and making the virtual a very “real” part of our lives. Social networking has already transformed our relationships and Augmented Reality looks to be the thing that does the same for shopping, traveling, culture, drinking, language translation and pretty much everything else.
Like the MP3 player and camera before it location and recognition technology will soon be ubiqutous on mobile devices. The influence that has on our lives cannot be underestimated, it will be massive.
“3.16 Billion Cycles” is a clock designed by Che-Wei Wang. 1 cycle takes 1 seconds, 3.16 billion cycles will take 100 years. After that time the clock will fall apart due to the gap in the outer arc.
A 60 rpm (revolutions per minute) motor drives the entire mechanism. It rotates once every second. The following pulley rotates once every 5 seconds (1:5 ratio). The next rotates once every 60 seconds or 1 minute. Then 5 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day, 1 month, 1 year, and 1 decade. The decade wheel carries the load of the large arc. The large arc rotates once every century. The final ratio between the 60 rpm motor and the large arc is approximately 1:31.6 billion.
Each wheel is marked with a black nut to highlight a position that could be tracked over time. Along the arc, 100 lines mark the divisions of each passing year. When the clock finally reaches the end of a 100 year cycle, the arc falls off its track onto the floor.
Fantastic right? But get it while it’s hot! It’s LIVE and it will prolly disappear soon.
Get recession revenge by waiting in line (currently I’m 100th in line) to control a LIVE paintball gun for 10 seconds. It’s aimed at a LIVE (are you listening?!) banker. Then you shoot him. If you don’t suck.
So you show up at your favorite Cheesecake Factory ready to stuff your fat face full of fried foccacia, but the line is around the friggin’ block. You have two choices: Sit and wait. Forever. (Whilst holding the dumbest invention in all the land - the buzzing beer coaster.) Or head to the next spot on your list. Maybe their line won’t suck. But let’s face it you really wanted some fucking Cheesecake.
horray!
Now you have a new option (are you listening Cheesecake Factory?). Your mobile number. Yep. Your mobile number. Vis-a-vis the fine folks at Qless.
QLess is looking to provide a more logical system that uses your mobile phone. You can check into a line by sending a txt message or making a phone call, without even the need for someone to physically check you in. Then, you’ll simply receive a txt message or phone call when your turn in line has come up.
What does all that mean, fatboy? (Geez I’m angry today). Now you can go and walk the avenue with your hot date until your txt arrives. When it does, txt the hottie back at the Cheesecake Factory and let her know you’re 10 min away. (She’ll bump you 10 min in line) est voila! your seat is waiting. Neat, right? You might have even walked off some of that double order of corn fritters you’re about to order because you can’t help yourself every time you go. Too much info? :)
but wait, there’s more
In addition to making things more convenient for customers, QLess offers establishments that use it a number of marketing and research features. For example, you can send out coupons to customers that are waiting in line, and utilize analytics to see how your establishment is trending in terms of return customers or average wait time.
While restaurants are the most logical place for something like QLess to take hold, the company is also targeting kinkos, post offices, and the DMV, and pretty much anywhere you want to shoot your face off because “those fucking morons behind the counter can’t seem to get their shit toegether…”
As a customer, there’s not much more to see other than a txt message and a high five from your amazed friends, but as a business that might want to consider implementing its service, QLess’ website offers some more details on the features and how to get setup.
So what are you waiting for (ahem Cheesecake Factory, ahem…) get your asses over to Qless.com and make me a sandwich!
Mark McKeague, a student at Queen’s University Belfast, has invented a radio that tunes in to and broadcasts messages posted on the social-networking site Twitter. In addition, the tweets are sorted by sentiment, such as happy or sad, based on their content. McKeague, who studies music technology, has created an interactive version of this radio twitter that allows people to listen to messages posted on the website in real time.
“I came up with the idea when thinking about the amount of information that is being broadcast on the internet, through numerous social networks and personal sites,” said McKeague in a press interview. “There is so much information being broadcast and most of it goes unread and unnoticed. I wanted to find a new way to use this information.”
McKeague found a radio when he was home for Christmas and liked its old-fashioned style and feel. He took it apart and added an Arduino microcontroller, commonly used in DIY electronics projects, that picks up on the radio’s tuning dial. He added a connection to the radio’s speakers and wrote software to download tweets and send them to the radio.
Holy shit balls, finally! Get out your pretty mobile and txt “ajello” to 50500 (no quotes) to see what I mean.
BAM! Introducing Contxts, a new service from ID345, a Denver-based idea company. It’s quite simple: you program what you want your business card to say on the website, and then tell people to text your user ID to 50500, or you can send it to them. Could it be any easier than that?
Several companies have attempted to solve the problem of paper business cards for some time, but Contxts takes the cake IMHO. You can even use the service without ever visiting the website. Just text “JOIN firstname lastname email” to 50500 and then when anyone texts your number to 50500, they will get your name and email address.
Have you seen Flightography? It is the work of James Mann from Elk Grove, CA. He uses his twenty years of R/C Piloting skills to shoot awesome aerial photographs of towns, landscape, farms, etc. Oh, and also to bomb the shit out of his neighborhood.
I just added this video of an R/C airplane pilot bombing his neighborhood to UPL8.tv
Apparently the Flightography crew have developed something that has all sorts of deliciously malicious applications, a radio controlled plane water bomb rig. Imagine the possibilities, while not endless, there are plenty of cool things that could be done with one of these.
Hokay soh, I’mnot much of a fan of virtual worlds though I’ve dabbled here and there. You prolly already know this. But recently discovered Stephanie Rothenberg’s latest project doublehappinessjeans, a Second Life
sweatshop that produces designer denim by the underpaid labor of
virtual avatars; producing the goods in both physical and digital form. Wait. What? Yeah. Watch:
Unfuckingbeliveably mindblowing opportunities for discussion around Personal Fabrication (the ideas that one day manufacturing of complex products will be conducted
digitally, through digital fabrication machines, while only bits (design information) would be transferred around the world.) Basically designs would still be centrally distributed while
manufacturing will become clean and compact enough to happen anywhere.
Doublehappinessjeans suggests that the sweatshop endures regardless of
the sophistication of design or manufacturing. Through the virtual world, low-cost labor continues
to be exploited, whether to design or fabricate real or virtual goods,
either through ‘gold farming‘ or simply because design itself creates interesting / easy / creative opportunities for the “workers” to produce monetizeable stuff. I need to stop thinking about this before I explode. Incedentially, tweet my business partner @neonarcade for more on gold farming. He’s well more versed in its ins and outs than I. Rock on.
P8tch
We’ve all heard of qrcodes by now - basically - TinyURLs for mobile. Well, these you can wear! Each two-by-four-inch, velcro-backed twill p8tch has a Mysterious Commando Design on the top, and a QRCode on the bottom. The QRCode on the p8tch contains a URL. If you scan the code with your iPhone, Mobile Safari will take you directly to that URL. Or, if it’s a Google Maps link, directly to the Google Maps app. Or, if it’s a YouTube link, it’ll show a movie. Cool, right?
would you add him?Assuming by now you have heard of semacodes or QR codes. No? QR codes are a new type of bar-code you can scan with your cell phone to get the phone to execute some sort of function. It is most often used to get the phone to open a webpage. Just scan (shoot) the code and the phone opens the URL. QR codes are widely used in europe and asia but are slowly starting to appear in the americas.
This little app connects your code with your fbook profile - then uses Zazzle to throw it on a tshirt! (The shirts encode the URL of your mobile facebook page.)
Awesome. Now I can go to advertising industry parties and literally speak to no one. :)
I love this thing: Its the new Asus Eee PC 4G. Small, capable, very cheaply made and get this:
* Weighs about 2 pounds * Has WiFi * Runs Xandros Linux - no frills and totally hackable * Has an integrated webcam, microphone and speaker jacks * Gets the job done
UM. Yeah - it costs $399. (Your iPhone was 400.00).
My favorite part (and why this is relevant)? This thing is small, light, and cheap. The perfect hackable toy for use in interactive installations in or out of the home or office. I predidct this little guy is going to change everything.
Oh and one more thing. Seeing a trend people? More value, less money. We’re all in love with the latest gadget - true, but not everyone is prepared to spend 800.00 hundred dollars to own a new Kindle, when for the same money, you could have a computer that does it all.
Non profit agencies have been fighting for the low cost computing market for years. The truth is, it all should be low cost and with a price tage (and functionality) like this, this thing will get hacked, designed, re-designed, mounted to someone’s refridgerator, slapped on a remote control car, mounted to the back of an SUV on Pimp my Ride and could quite possibly run be the engine that put digital pants on your ass and this table in your living room.
2008 will bring more product designers to the realization that hacking and adapting technology is an important component in development of new ideas.
