Using the Waveface banner, Asustek (a Taiwanese manufacturer) has been playing around with some more radical design ideas, including a sophisticated wrist-top computer, a laptop that folds like a newspaper and a TV that works with gesture commands. (Behold the jargon-filled demo video.)
The watch-like device, the Waveface Ultra, is made out of a bendable display that can connect to the Internet, make phone calls and do a fair amount of data-crunching. In short, it’s a bracelet that acts like a smartphone.
The device is definitely still in the concept phase. But futuristic as it may seem, some contacts at Asustek assure me that an incarnation of the Waveface Ultra is actually working in the company’s labs.
Asus is hardly the first company to kick around the idea of bendable displays or wristwatch computers (remember Microsoft’s ill-fated Spot watch?). But its ideas are interesting because of what they portend for displays. All three products hinge on a lightweight, flexible display material with built-in computing smarts (you'll have to read the full article to read about the other two. )
Most people have already given up wearing watches because their phones tell them the time. Would you start wearing watches again if it could make phone calls? It's not a totally new thing. Just google "wrist phone" and you'll get a bunch of prototypes. The innovation here is the bendable display.
Great, more products in a world that is already over-consuming far beyond their means.
Inanimate Alice is a website that takes a look at how people employ the technology of the web, how the “reader” is made into an active participant, and whether these texts “transfer” from the screen to the page. With the current advent of future publication processes and the release of the iPad I though it would be interesting to look at these new innovations from a different perspective.
The website itself is dedicated to being a platform for storytelling. Written by authors Kate Pullinger and Chris Joseph, the narrative revolves around a girl growing up in the twenty-first century, inundated with technology and the ways of the modern world. It is how the narrative is told that makes it special. Text, sounds and images all come together to create a truly unique interactive and innovative experience as the story’s protagonist Alice begins her journey from adolescence to adulthood.
Throughout modern history, innovations in media technologies have radically altered way artists create and distribute their work. This evolution has allowed artists to create deeply personal expressive work about their lives, loves, and political values all topics that mainstream media would rarely address.
This evolution began in the mid 1950’s when smaller lighter and cheaper film cameras were invented. Artists could now create feature-length films without studio constraints. François Truffaut, Jean Luc Godard, and Eric Rohmer were notable directors who developed their own more expressive style of filmmaking based from these innovations.
In late 1960’s artists began to experiment with analog video. This technology was cheaper to access, allowed for longer takes, and had the novelty of instant playback. Artists such as Andy Worhol, Nam Jun Paik, and Wolf Vostell are just a few of these artists who first pushed the boundaries of this medium. Their work was often regarded as controversial for its graphic images or its overtly political subject matter. As a result, the distribution of their work was often limited to a handful of contemporary galleries, since no television channel would broadcast their work.
The Internet greatly altered the way artists created and distributed their work. From the mid 90’s to the present day, artists have utilized the Internet capabilities as a tool for art, distribution and social networking. Furthermore, the interactive capabilities of the Internet have allowed artists to create work that viewers can watch and participate in. For example South African artists Nathaniel Stern, together with American artist Scott Kildall have created a mock-Wikipedia web page called wikipediaart.org. It is an online art encyclopedia that artists and art lovers can edit, comment, and forum for internet copyright. This piece work was intended to be part of Wikipedia site but was blocked because their editing process did not comply with Wikipedia’s copyright policy.
Spain’s Antoni Abad helps handicapped people in Geneva and Barcelona. On his web site www.zexe.net he has created a network to make it easier for handicapped people to get around the city easier. On the site are pictures that people have taken of obstacles that may get in their way.
Today artists have the ability to produce almost any kind of work they desire and display on the Internet to thousands of people at minimal or no charge. Furthermore, there is statistical evidence that more people view online art then visit galleries, according to Jon Ippolito of the New York Digital Salon. Advances in technology have changed art, both in production and distribution. Unfortunately, technical advances can render older digital art works obsolete. While museums such as SFMOMA are currently researching archival techniques to preserve digital and online art there is no way that they can catalog all the millions of online. So even though artists have greater freedom to create and distribute art, the work that they create comes with a life span much shorter to that of a painting in a gallery or a role of film on a shelf.
Related Links,
Film History- French and New Wave Cinema
http://foreignfilms.suite101.com/article.cfm/film_history_french_new_wave The Video Art History Achive
This past week, Google introduced yet another new thing: Google Buzz.
So what is it?
Well, essentially it's an RSS feed with all of your combined social networks. You can go to gmail.com, log into your account, and see your Twitter feed, your Picasa and Flickr feed, Google Reader...and the list goes on.
For me, it combines the best features of Facebook (likes, dislikes, threads) and Twitter (personal activity stream) and mashes them up into one thing. It's smarter than a FriendFeed, because it only shows what makes sense to you at that particular moment.
I've always been frustrated with having to go to all of my different social networking accounts and not being able to see them all in one stream/feed..but I think that Google Buzz is hopefully going to change this.
There have been some interesting privacy issues of late regarding Google Buzz, and of course one must ask about Google's motives in amassing all of the information in the world. However it does manages to take all of our social networking stuff and streamline it into ONE conversation..which is pretty cool.
The Ocarina is an application for the iPhone. Named after an ancient folk instrument, this app is the first to turn the iPhone into a new kind of musical instrument. Sensitive to touch, movement, and breath, it also has social networking capabilities. Once a user plays a song with the program, he/she can instantly share the music they have created with the Ocarina with other app users currently online.
The program was designed by Ge Wang a technology student at Stanford University he named it after an ancient folk instrument. Last December, he conducted the first orchestra performance of the Ocarina with the Stanford Mobile Pone Orchestra. The musicians improvised by wearing a pair of special electric gloves with miniature speakers inside them.
The application has been downloaded by 600,000 people so far. Even though it can never replace physical instruments it allow you to create music in an entirely new way.
Name: Josh
Occupation: Student in Computer Science at Waterloo
Josh has played music for most of his life. He plays the piano, clarinet, and drums. He enjoys playing all kinds of music and has even used his old cell phone as an instrument.
Last year he bought an iPhone, and it has changed his way of making music and how he communicates with other musicians.Over the year, he has amassed a vast library of virtual instruments. While the applications are not a replacement for traditional instruments they do provide him with a completely new means of expression.
Josh and his friends formed a mobile phone orchestra four months ago. They practice twice a week sometimes in the same room together and other times practice online. The program they use the most is Ocarina. It provides the musicians a new way of creating music and sharing music.
When the orchestra practices, they improvise movements, tones, and rhythms. For each piece, one of the members is chosen as the conductor to lead the group. The conductor coordinates and organizes direction of the sound. Over the course of the session the musicians decide were and when to blow tap or wave their iPhones as well create the audio palette of the piece.
When the musicians are practicing at home, they use the sharing feature of the app to hear instant playback of each other’s music. When the orchestra meets, the musicians also wear gloves with speakers inside them. They recently bought them from Stanford’s IT department. The gloves allow them to greater control over the sounds and provide grater amplification than is capable with the iPhone’s speaker.
When Josh is working at home he always tries to stay connected with one or more of his bandmates. Excited by the new possibilities this instrument offers, he looks forward to the Waterloo Mobile Phone Orchestra’s next performance.
At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona today, the company showed off Windows Phone 7 for the first time, which has been designed from the ground up to seamlessly pull together content from social networking sites and other web services on a scale unseen on competing platforms.
Phones based around the new operating system are set to hit the market by Christmas this year. Samsung, HTC, HP, Sony Ericsson, Dell, LG and Toshiba have already signed up as early partners.
Singer Imogen Heap wore a dress to this year's Grammy's that had its own twitter feed! She wore a LED collar that displays messages from fans and inside a translucent Fendi handbag, an iPhone displayed photos from fans via twitter.
Electronic photo frames are not new - however, this particular one has features that I have not seen on any other e-frame.
1. It is Wi-Fi enabled, so you can access facebook albums 2. It can have its own email address, so friends and family and just email a photo and it appears in your frame. 3. It has a touch screen
As student team from MIT has developed a jacket that allows other people to give you a massage remotely. You can thank the people who send you massages, also you can send massages. Its called the SOS, which stands for Stress Out Source.
What if you couldn't be with your loved one this V-Day? Wouldn't you wish you could just hug them!?
Now you can with the Hug Shirt from Cute Circuit. This wearable technology has the ability to mimic human to human contact - it is highly intuitive and is designed with user emotion in mind, including the sensation of touch, warmth and intensity of a hug.
The system is very simple: a Hug Shirt™ (Bluetooth with sensors and actuators), a Bluetooth java enabled mobile phone with the HugMe™ java software running (it understands what the sensors are communicating), and on the other side another phone and another shirt. If you do not have a Hug Shirt™ but know that your friend has one you can still send them a hug creating it with the HugMe™ software and it will be delivered to your friend’s Hug Shirt™!
When touching the red areas on your Hug Shirt™ your mobile phone receives the sensors data via Bluetooth (hug pressure, skin temperature, heartbeat rate, time you are hugging for, etc) and then delivers it to the other person.
I'm sure most of you are familiar. For those who aren't, Second Life was originally heralded as the next generation of instant messaging, the evolution of, if you will. It's an entire 3D world that users can connect to, deploying themselves into it with a user-customizable avatar. These avatars, called Residents, can explore, meet other residents, socialise, participatea in individual and group activities, and create and trade virtual property and services with one another, or travel throughout the world (referred to as 'the grid').
Second life has a colossal user base and it's largely thanks to its broad accessibility - The application is free to download and use for Windows, Linux and Mac OS and thus is available to all major PC platforms.
During its inception, Second Life struggled to secure its place as the new form of online communication - users were mostly logging time for entertainment while IM still held the crown for online communication. Today, SL has taken a different direction and grown into an entire metaverse where there was an average of 38,000 residents online at any given moment.
Avatars can take any form the user desires (human, animal, vegetable, mineral, all of the above) and offers users a massive opportunity for customization -- users can even opt to design an avatar that looks like their real self. Users can communicate using either IM or chat - the latter being more of a public address where any other resident within earshot will be able to hear/see what is being said, whereas IM is a private message from one user to another, or one user to a group and does not require any sort of proximity.
Second Life flourishes on a virtual economy built around the Linden dollar (L$) which can be used to buy or sell virtual goods including living spaces, vehicles, devices, animations, clothing, skin, hair etc. Only a relatively small amount of users actually profit from their time on Second Life but it is a quickly expanding category. By february, around 64,000 users had made a profit from online trade, and by March it was known that there exist a few SL entrepreneurs whose profits exceed 1 million US$ per year.
With nearly 2 million residents globally, more and more large corporations are using SL as a medium to reach their customers, or even just allow their employees to interact. The Second Life Corporate Business Council was formed to give larger companies the opportunity to utilise SL. Companies like IBM and Cisco have purchased islands and built domains in the grid, even contracting some work to SL architects who receive hundreds of thousands of real-world dollars for their virtual creations.
Cisco Systems, for example, constructed an amphitheater and a scaled replica of Cisco Field. They also offer classes at the University of Second Learning that are available to the public. The main goal of the company's venture into the metaverse is to open up a dialog between customers and experts regarding their catalog and offer accessible and immersive tech support services.
Profile Jonathan 35 year old Cisco Systems regional manager living in Toronto Often has to fly over to HQ to attend meetings Very active work life with little time for socialising Always striving to expand client base Tech savvy, eager adopter of new technologies Networking is a crucial part of his career and life
Scenario Jon uses the Second Life metaverse to enhance several aspects of his job. By logging into the SL server he is instantly able to connect and communicate with literally thousands of other Cisco employees. While instant-messaging programs and video conferencing have been around for many years, the creative freedoms offered to Jon by Second Life have not. Joh can outline his projects in a three-dimensional format. His employer can save on travel expenses by conducting meetings and training sessions at the virtual Cisco HQ; which thusly allows Jon more time for his family and personal life.
Second Life also offers Jon the opportunity to virtually socialise with his bosses and peers without, for example, scheduling a meet at a golf course or a business dinner. Jon can also speak with clients in the virtual space. Clients come to him online to receive a better visual understanding of the products that Cisco offer.
As a result, Jon's efficiency and productivity is up in a big way. Second Life has allowed him to manage the same tasks that he already did in a much quicker way, while simultaneously opening new doors that allow for more clients and a new approach to customer service.
Square is both a service and a physical device that allows users to use their mobile devices to swipe and read payment cards, allowing people to accept credit/debit card payments without the use of otherwise expensive and complicated equipment.
So what's the big deal? The world is moving towards the very small. Small businesses, small-batch producers...
In this current economy many aspiring entrepreneurs are taking advantage of cheap retail space to open their own, uniquely catered businesses. At the same time passionate individuals, forming communities thanks to various social networking technologies can get together to create and distribute specialty products.
In any case, what's important is this realization that individuals are beginning to take this step, creating what they want instead of letting larger, well established companies do it instead. This shift towards the personal, individual businesses has opened up new areas of opportunity as these new businesses owners look for new ways to make themselves accessible to customers without having to invest in complicated infrastructure. What Square does is give these individuals the power to bypass otherwise expensive dedicated equipment and access a world of consumers who increasingly carry card only.
The Square device works by plugging into any device with an audio jack and an internet connection. The device reads the credit card information and connects to the Square server. Receipts are all stored online to be accessed later and accounts can be made for return customers, allowing you to track who your return customers are, and offer rewards.
Scenario of use
John and Jadey are in their early 30's, living in Toronto. They are a young couple, fairly well connected to technology. They use social networking to keep in touch with their friends, they download music and movies off the internet and they use it to get their news and do their banking.
Beyond that, though, they wouldn't describe themselves as early adopters, or "geeks" in any way.
John and Jadey are both glassworkers. Glass is their passion, their purpose in life. Working out of small shop near the distillery, they create beautiful pieces, both functional and decorative. They've found over the recent years a growing increase in interest, more and more people are coming into their shop, to see and to buy their goods. They had a problem though. Most of their work was sold through galleries, and while they did sell out-of-shop, they could only accept cash payments. This was frustrating. It was too expensive, and it didn't make sense to buy the necessary equipment so a few customers a month could buy their pieces.
Then they found Square. With Square they found an easy, cheap way to accept payments. It works with their business, allows them to track and reward valued return customers, and most importantly is much more cheap and portable than traditional equipment. They can even accept credit cards at the Outdoor Show!
By adopting Square John and Jadey have made themselves much more accessible to their potential customers, it gave them the tools to feel like a real, legitimate business, selling their own products rather then having to deal with galleries and middlemen.
Folding@Home is a downloadable online application for the Playstation 3 (and PC - but I'll be focusing on the console version) that was created by Stanford University in 2007.
The program studies the changing shapes (ie. folding) proteins make for different functions ( ex. one can become an antibody to fight disease, but another can fold and become hair, or skin). If proteins don't fold correctly, the result can be any number of diseases, such as, Alzheimer's, Mad Cow, Parkinson's disease, and cancers.
What makes the application so interesting, is its technological innovations. While using the program online, the Playstation begins to work in sync with the hundreds of thousands of other systems around the globe that are running the program at the same time, giving an incredible amount of computing power to simulate the folds in proteins. Stanford states that thanks to this increase in processes, previous studies that would have taken years to even simulate can now be completed from within a few weeks to a couple of months.
The console version is also a social activity as well, allowing you to join teams of others online, and having a scoreboard to see the top contributors. The program also contains a map allowing you to see all of the other systems that are folding, an news program to catch up on headlines, and local / international weather.
The program is free to download, and can be a source for news and weather reports. It is available for Playstation 3 owners, as well as computer users. Users can contribute to these studies and eradicate diseases just by leaving their systems or computers idle ( using a computer just to listen to iTunes, why not help towards a cause?). Innovative in that instead of a University or Lab spending an incredible amount of money on a new supercomputer or technology - why not use the processing power that is already widely available?
Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend to unique entrepreneurs around the globe. (kiva.org)
Everybody loves a feel-good case study. Kiva is probably one of the most successful mirco-financing sites I have come across. Micro-financing you ask? Whats that!? Well, just like it is hard right now for some people in North America to get loans - imagine how hard it must be if you live in Africa and have no capital. That's where Kiva steps in - instead of sponsoring a child, you sponsor a businessperson. Lenders do not recieve interest back, although beneficiaries are charged some interest. The good news for you, is that there is a 98% rate of paying back loans, so its a win-win!
How Kiva has made a social change, is that it allows people who have some money, just sitting in the bank, to make better use of it for a good cause.... along the way, take some needy people out of the cycle of poverty.
There are a whole lot of Apps for Kiva other than the main website, at this stage, I don't think they are developed by Kiva, but most of them are recommended on the Kiva website. So basically you can keep track of your loans and the businesses that you are benefiting via twitter, widgets, igoogle, iPhone, mobile device, websites and email! This is a way to communicate and help people that you would probably never come across if it weren't for this concept.
Whats also awesome about this concept is that teams can compete for highest amounts of loans! From first glance, I saw a "team Canada", "London", and various social and religious affiliations.
Profile Kyle Toronto Middle aged, steady job, educated. Very busy Enjoys surfing the web and using his iPhone Does not have much time to contribute to charity causes, but loves business and wants to help other people, without risking much of his own money. Prefers trusted brands.
Scenario Kyle logs onto kiva.org Selects a business/businessperson who he wants to support Donates nominal amount Tracks the success of the business while waiting for the bus 3-6 months later, this loan is repaid, Searches for another business to support
Zimride is pretty much an application that gathers and encourages people with the same destination to carpooling. It is essentially the Facebook of ride sharing. You sign up, you say whether or not you have a car or need a ride, then enter your location and destination. Google Maps will then chart out your path and list the people who live along the way, and you can go through their profiles, looking for carpool mates.
This app is available for university students, businesses, and events. It is a reliable source of transportation that is also ecologically friendly. It establishes relationships between people in the community both online and on a face-to-face basis. Zimride encourages community involvement as well as social activity, which is completely different than standing on the bus, listening to your iPod, alone, for an hour.
For my case study, I have chosen the "You Tour" application as a social innovation using a clever device. You Tour is an application on the latest generation iPods that works as a multimedia "guidebook" for tourists. It allows tourists to conveniently and fully explore the cultural heritage of their holiday destinations (World Summit Award.com).
You Tour offers location maps, digital reconstructions, photographs, illustrations, animations, videos and instructions; a regularly updated directory of museums, restaurants, shops and services to enrich the tourist experience.
There is also information on embassies, currency, and emergency phone numbers to save people from the often happening emergency "tourist situations"; its most unique and attracting feature would be its audio/photo dictionary which contains useful phrases in the location's local language (World Summit Award.com).
I think You Tour is another smart app innovation, using virtual technology to enhance the user experience with the real world. It will help tourists get to know a new culture more thoroughly, bringing the world closer together.
Wreckamovie.com is an innovative online community of aspiring filmmakers. It involves the cross-pollination of e-entertainment and interactive social networking. Merging analogue and digital platforms, the website provides a platform for people of different backgrounds and technical skills to collaborate on all sorts of film projects from shorts to full features.
It all began with a small movie phenomenon in 2005 from Finland called Star Wreck. With the help of global distributors and a talented and creative online community a crew of five filmmakers proved that even on a small budget anything is possible. Their film quickly spread to 3000 of their online friends letting them open up a small studio that made Wreckamovie.com possible. Star Wreck studio has become the home and foundation for Wreckamovie.com.
The website is completely devoted to its online community as a social network for people to get involved in film production. Utilizing the power of crowd-sourced work, viral marketing and independent global distribution Wreckamovie.com has started a revolutionary concept in filmmaking that can take on the film industry on its own terms.
Task Analysis:
1)Register: name, e-mail etc. – similar to Face Book and YouTube
2)Once you become a member you have the freedom and ability to search around and explore the work of other members, different projects, ideas and concepts up in the air. This stage is to get you inspired for the potential of what online film potential can be.
3)As a member you also have the ability to post your own ideas, screenplays or actual material to get feedback and promote yourself within the community. The content that you post has to be your own.
4)As a full-fledged member you can also choose the tasks that you could be responsible for on a project: The list ranges from artists and actors to editors and producers.
5)At this point you have the ability to either join an existing project or create your own and promote it.
6)Once you have joined a project or developed your own a production leader must be appointed. This person gains the power to have final cut and be in charge of the decision making process as well as the legal rights of a project.
7)Wreckamovie.com is meant to be a collaborative effort meaning that once a project is completed, videos can be uploaded and viewed by other members. Even in the early stages of concept development you can post sketches online to receive feedback from others.
8)Once a project is completed promotion and distribution will become the main goals.
Through WSA site, I’ve found an interesting website that is socially innovative called ‘HOMELESS NATION’. The website has be created by a Canadian documentary filmmaker who wanted to develop a site for the homeless to share their real life stories to the community. Through building this online community, HN’s goal is to build homeless people’s self esteem through self-expression and teach them employable skills such as computers, and media. As I was browsing around the website, I have read many interesting stories that was very heart aching and terrifying. The fact that there is a space for these people for their voices to be heard is truly innovative and inspiring.
Stepping further from tossing loose change to the people in the streets, I think HN created a door for a different social interaction that is more than giving money but by actually listening to what they have to say and searching for political and social change.
A relatively new internet phenomenon has caught on: Chatroulette.
The premise is simple: The site pairs you with a random videochat partner. You can click "next" any time, or stay with your current pairing.
So, all you need is a webcam and you're ready!
The users on the site can be normal people looking for an interesting experience, someone looking to gross other people out, creepy guys looking for girls to talk to or someone with a funny gag.
Then things start tripping into psychedelic performance-art territory. As a friend says, "It's the Internet. UNFILTERED." The big lure is basically seeing something strange--or doing something so strange that you blow your partner's mind. A friend reports a man holding up a sign that said, "Assroll?"--and promptly rolling over backwards, naked. (Nudity is hard to avoid.) Also, challenges are big--successively crazier things. You might start by eating a page of your favorite book. You might end by calling your mother and screaming that you're being murdered. Think of YouTube, with even more exhibitionism because everything is live and nothing is being recorded.
CHANGE IN SOCIAL INTERACTION:
There’s a sense of freedom that comes from knowing that you’re speaking to strangers who you’re never going to see again that enhances the experience. You can say whatever you want to anyone without any consequences, and that makes every conversation you have on the site so much different from a normal conversation. It basically allows you to have the interactions you wish you could have on a day-to-day basis because no one feels the need to adhere to society’s normal social standards. Which probably explains the large amount of penises.
Google's announced operating system "Chrome" is already generally old news, but it is still a fascinating idea that if successful, will be a glimpse into the future of how people use their computers.
The idea that an entire operating system will run through just a web browser is both intriguing and scary at the same time. I'm interested in the idea that hard-drives are essentially useless since everything is stored on what Google calls a "Cloud" system. But at the same time, your own documents are no longer stored on something tangible that you can see. It's somewhere out in cyberspace and although it will in all likelihood be secure, there is a degree of control that is not yours. That can be a scary idea to a lot of people who appreciate privacy.
As of right now, I don't believe an operating system operated off this "Cloud" is realistic. Yet. Internet speeds just aren't fast enough to justify having everything run through it. Any downloaded video or mp3 (if you can call it downloading) will essentially be streamed and no longer run off your own hardware. Just in general, internet speeds aren't anywhere near the level needed to run an entire OS off of it. Maybe in time, just not now.
There are numerous other issues in this project that Google has proposed, but it is otherwise an intriguing look into what the future might hold.
Last week in class, a group presented a DSLR as a clever device. At first, I disagreed with this choice, but as I consider it more, the introduction of consumer and prosumer cameras really paved the way for social networking sites focusing on photos, like Flickr.
The creation of Flickr in 2004 (and subsequent acquisition by Yahoo! in 2005) gave people the chance to create a collaborative environment where they could share, critique, and learn about photography. You no longer have to be a professional photographer to showcase your work, as it removes the concept of a traditional "gallery" and opens that opportunity up for anyone to display their images.
I feel the biggest impact is for beginner photographers, as it provides a good learning environment with like-minded people using similar gear, and can help people become better photographers.
I realize other people have posted about Microsoft's codenamed "Project Natal" (name not final), but I also wanted to include Sony's codenamed "Arc", "Wand" or whatever they are calling it right now.
Microsoft took a decidedly different approach to motion control, using a camera to capture movement, facial expressions etc. Sony took a route similar to Nintendo - giving players something to hold in their hand while they flail away and the PS3 tracks their movement. On paper, both of these devices are far more powerful than Nintendo's Wii Remote, but will either be successful in taking a piece of Nintendo's pie?
In the end, software is what drives sales. Nintendo has a huge head start in the market and has pretty much nailed the game ideas that people like to play. Microsoft and Sony software for their respective devices will no doubt follow the same sort of template Nintendo created. I'm skeptical on whether Microsoft and Sony will match that sort of success. Nintendo has always kept it simple and made their games extremely approachable and easy to pick up and play. No games on the Xbox360 or PS3 can claim the same. I have a feeling Natal and the Arc/Wand will appeal mostly to the gamers who already have bought their systems, and while that is enough to make them a success, it won't increase their market share. It will always be a battle between Sony and Microsoft for the same market while the Wii continues to run away with the "casual" games market.
"It all began when the 49-year-old’s wife found (preloaded/suggested) texts on his cell phone along the lines of, “Booty Call” and “Let’s Do It.” Now the guy is facing the possibility of divorce, as his wife is under the impression he has been cheating on her."
This is a case that demonstrates how intertwined clever devices are in our interactions with other people. Preloaded content diminishes the role of personalisation and dictates what a user sees. Clearly, this content was targeted towards a youth demographic. This is misappropriation of the capacity of the clever device.
For the past few years the film industry has made most of its money from the revenue of 3-D films. Films such as Avatar, Harry Potter, and Super Man Returns have made huge profits from its novelty. This January at the Electronics Show in Las Vegas there was great excitement over the release of 3D television. However, these sets will cost about 750 American dollars and only come with two glasses (extra glasses will cost 75 American Dollars a piece). http://video.nytimes.com/video/playlist/technology/1194811622271/index.html But now thanks to the NFB you can experience the thrill of 3D for free. The NFB has now recently uploaded a selection of 3D films on its web site. While they do require glasses to watch the NFB will send you glasses (the old fashioned blue and red kind) without charge. The films and glasses can be found at http://nfb.ca/playlist/nfb-3d/. If you are run out of National Film Board content, You Tube has recently added 3D settings to a few of its videos. There are already hours of 3D kitten videos online. So hold on to those NFB glasses they will come in handy for hours of future entertainment.
This may be slightly off-topic but a follow-up to last week's discussion. It does involve application we use often and possibilities with current technology.
With problems of the past reemerging in our future, the issue of space will become ever more important. Where as in the past overcrowding in catacombs led to the creation of cemeteries the lack of space is leading to new possibilities in mortuary practices. As we are in an ever-evolving world it seems that technology may play a role in providing new opportunities in burial spaces. A fairly recent article in the Los Angeles Times discussed how “MyDeathSpace.com” has become a gallery to provide memorials for deceased myspace members. While many of the pages are dedicated to youths Meghan Bar says, “their fates have been sealed, but their spirits remain alive -- frozen in time, for all to see”. Cyberspace places these memories on a public domain for all to see. The privacy of visiting a cemetery will be replaced by an open source memorial for all to see and experience if they are so inclined.
Whether this is a positive or negative aspect this may be the next step in cemetery evolution. As our world population grows and land is quickly becoming a scarce commodity going digital may be the next step towards preserving memories of loved ones. According to anthropologist Helaine Silverman, “the place of death (the location of a cemetery) in a society (the space of life and death) is mobile when seen in long term”. With cd’s and other technological breakthroughs of the past quickly loosing their importance in a digital world, providing a permanent resting place for deceased online that can be accessed by a few clicks of a mouse suddenly does not seem so far fetched. It may be the logical progression to how we view the departed in our modern age.
Recently, a new device made its preview. The Powermat was introduced as the new wireless charging system that simultaneously juices up all your electronic gadgets. It came out as a solution to reduce the jumble of cables and cords at home or underneath desk when people charge their phones, Blackberry etc. You can charge up to 3 devices at a time by placing a device with a Powermat receiver onto the mat.
What 's good about it besides the obvious, is that it's energy efficient and simple in design. It's also quite easy to use. Just place the mat on a surface and plug it in and then take a receiver and attached it to your rechargeable device. There's 3 charging spots on the mat and if you position your gadget on 1 of the 3 designated charging spot, you will feel a magnetic tug. A light turns on with a sound effect to let you know that it is being charge.
The downside to all this awesomeness is that you still need to plug in the mat. However, instead of having to plug in six things you only have to plug in one. Also the mat has only 3 defined spots that charge receivers. You would have to position it in the right way, not just anywhere with a bunch of them squished together.
All in all this innovation is practical and useful. Especially for traveling when u have multiple things to charge, or at home/ office if more than one electronic device needs charging.
