Last week my family and I visited the Guggenheim in New York. There I saw a show called "Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim Museum", it featured proposals by artists to fill the centre lobby of the museum.
The exhibition was filled with thought provoking and entertaining posters, architectural drawings, and illustrations. The Guggenheim has been an architectural landmark for 50 years and it was easy to see the artists where inspired by their subject. The ideas ranged from practical to outrageous for example one was for an indoor market and another proposed filling the museum with chocolate. While walking through the exhibition I could not help but be reminded of our classes proposal for Harbourfront.
The show is available on line at, http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/exhibitions/on-view-now/contemplating-the-void. Take my suggestion and give it a look. If the work does not inspire it will at least amuse.
On the other side lingers the publishing industry, which has seemingly been killed off and resurrected numerous times within the last few decades. With the advent of new technology the face of publishing is changing as well. Analysts have predicted the death of print many times throughout history without their tragic musings coming into fruition. There is no doubt that the publishing industry is changing, but whether for the better of worse is the question. Magazines have been losing revenue steadily but paperback novels have remained constant. Case and point, with the release of Dan Brown’s new thriller, The Lost Symbol, publisher Doubleday managed to sell over a million copies in hardcover and e-book versions in the United States, Britain and Canada within the span of a single day.
With the highly anticipated release of Apple’s new iPad and Amazon’s number one selling product the Kindle, literature seems to be moving the way of the music industry into the digital realm. Now thousands of novels, books and other literary resources can be kept in a single touch-sensitive piece of technology. According to Wired co-founder Kevin Kelly, publishing trends and figures can be misleading, “174.5 million people paid to subscribe to magazines in 1970; that number has steadily and consistently risen over the years, to 324.8 million as of 2008”. The bottom line is that media is changing and publishing companies will have to adapt and embrace new technology.
Coincidentally, I have been exploring many of these trends in technology for a report I have been working on. I thought that I would share a few of these starting with Augmented Reality.
No longer just for fun, augmented reality, is being used by large companies to support some of their services and products. One of the most notable is The US Postal Service, using the technology to determine shipping box sizes by overlaying a semi-transparent 3D model of a box over your item being shipped. General Motors is using it for an ‘enhanced vision system’, by creating an Augmented Reality Windshield, to help drivers find their way by pointing to landmarks and buildings. Other uses? T-shirts, baseball cards, music videos, toys [Lego], shopping, buying sunglasses [RayBan] and of course, a multitude of apps.
More and more companies will be using this technology for differentiating their products and services. Expect to begin to see augmented reality used in teaching and education [MIT Press], as well as in the marketing and PR industry. Check out 'Bring your pack to life", a contest on the Dentyne site.
“AR provides a ‘touchstone technology’ that layers geo-data, social networking and location-based advertising in a seamless format for consumers. The ramifications for advertising and the idea of ‘virtual air rights,’ combined with myriad B2B and B2C applications, will provide our clients with a wide range of exciting opportunities in the near future.”John C. Havens, SVP of social media at Porter Novelli
Jimmy Choo has added LED lights the heels of one of his SS 2010 collection shoes. You know, this technology has been used in kids shoes for a long time - now its grown up!
In today’s world, clever devices and smart technology come in many forms. The same technology that makes our lives a lot more efficient can also create havoc and be used for the wrong reasons. We are seen more cutting-edge, complex, and clever gadgets that have challenged the law and our ethics.
There is no end to the ingenuity of the criminal hacker. They’ve figured out how to hack debit card PINS. Debit cards are linked directly to our checking accounts, which makes them easy targets for criminal hackers. At an ATM or cash register, most debit card users are unaware of what occurs when they swipe their cards and enter their pin numbers. A quick process takes place and we get to walk away with our new purchase, simply by swiping a card and tapping a few keys. The money magically disappears from our account and we celebrate by eating the Twinkie we just bought.
The convenience of debit cards has led to global popularity that vastly exceeds that of handwritten checks, all the way into 3rd world countries. We’ve known for some time that low-tech skimming at ATMs and gas pumps have been a point of compromise. Now Wired reports that the transaction itself puts your PIN number at risk. Academics discovered this flaw years ago, but didn’t think it would be possible to execute in the field. Criminal hackers, however, have come up with the ultimate attack, stealing large amounts of encrypted and unencrypted debit card and pin numbers. And they have figured a way to crack the encryption codes.
The compromise occurs in a device called a hardware security module (HSM), which sits on bank networks. PIN numbers pass through this device on their way to the card issuer. The module is tamper-resistant and provides a secure environment for encryption and decryption for PINs and card numbers. Criminal hackers are accessing HSMs and tricking them into providing the decrypting data. They are installing malware called “memory scrapers,” which capture the unencrypted data and use the hacked system to store it.
People should check your statements very closely and look for unauthorized activity. Read their statements online biweekly as opposed to relying solely on your monthly paper statement, and refute unauthorized charges immediately
To make their criminals’ jobs harder, Interac is now rolling out a next generation of debit cards that contain an embedded microchip. If you’ve a new credit or debit card, you’ve already seen the microchip technology. The chip acts as a mini computer, storing and processing information. The data on the chip is extremely difficult to copy or change, minimizing the chance of fraud. A debit card transaction conducted with the microchip technology is significantly more secure than a transaction completed with a swipe of the magnetic stripe.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Interactive Advertising- AD POD
Touch screens are another way to use our devices without the use of a mouse or keyboard and only requires our fingers.
Ad Pod uses a giant touch- screen that users can interact with to uncover advertisements with a stroke of the hand or finger propelling the idea of touch sensitivity. The mixture of advertisements with this technology gives way to a new type of interactivity that engages the user not only with a visual illustration or design but forces the user to touch a screen, adding the aspect of physical participation.
“Let us not be blind to our differences - but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.”
I was walking down the street and saw this sticker
"love to shop" the sticker said, 'yep' I said to myself. Intrigued, I took a photo with my iPhone. Then went to the website getclip.ca.... it told me to download the app, so I did that...
It is a location based coupon app. Basically this is what many people want from Foursquare, ie deals at shops and restaurants, without the competitive nature of being Mayor or not.
Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital is featured as being a model hospital for clever devices integration, namely for iPhone use.
Using Apple's developer software "iPhone SDK", Mount Sinai developed a iPhone app called VITAL HUB, which basically combines all 66 apps used by doctors.
At the last family bbq I was at, a relative who is Radiologist was telling me how he can clearly view images and from the iPhone and is excited by future uses.
The latest Cisco ad featuring our Ellen Page, shows her visiting her doctor via webcam. Is this the future of doctor's visits? Virtual waiting rooms?
There is a trend towards people trying to self-diagnose via google. Well, self diagnosis isn't a new thing, it was once common to have books that people used in the home. But it is fair to say that some internet sites are not reliable for this, many are also full of ads.
I believe we will see fundamental change regarding health care in the near future. This will have a lot to do with the increasing demand for services with the ageing population.
We typically perceive it as a driving force of change, the harbinger of good, the bright future and the unity of mankind. However, If you Google globalization, a central theme of keywords will begin to crop up: 'Challenges', 'Impact', 'Discontents' to name a few.
What are you talking about? Globalization is an inevitable process, it is where societies grow and evolve to the point of overlapping and consequently connecting. This can be a wonderful thing when not led by powerful self-serving feudalists and imperialists. As technology brings us closer to unity, so too are we united in our struggle under the capitalist doctrine. Countries where people could be free and live off the land are now condemned to a lifetime of work just to stay afloat amidst a sea of debts.
What are some directly affected areas? E-waste, pollution, poverty, biological weaponry, nihilism, commodity fetishism; these are all ideas that flow more and more freely as we continue to bring countries closer and erase unique cultural resonances under a new ultimate world order.
We are blinded to these global happenings just as we are blinded to what really goes on in our society.
Why would this make a good project? The strength of this direction as a project for the Harborfront centre is both in its contrast to the other installations and in the innate human curiosity. The sheer magnitude of this path means that we can make all sorts of awesome projects to illustrate it - we are essentially communicating an emotion through art and design. backed up by huge heapings of evidence at our disposal.
What do you plan to do about it? While i personally enjoy the idea of a doorway as a portal into the blindness, (since the door serves as a portal while also being a metaphor for shutting out undesirable information) I'd love to discuss some ideas with anyone interested.
eWaste, for example, is one of the many directions and it can be tackled in a cool installation by taking old cell phones and building something beautiful out of them, ie. a chandelier. We could use crowdsourcing and invite people to submit their solutions to various world problems, or simply express their reactions in a way more people can see them. Inspired by the tweet mobile:
So what now? I'd really, really like to tackle this idea. I feel like the pure emotion it invokes will show visitors humanity's true oneness and global consciousness. This is local thinking extrapolated globally - it fits in perfectly with the theme of the exhibition and with so much emotional ammunition I feel it has the ability to rise above all the other installations - but I can't do it by myself! I need more creative minds to help me out.
So If you want to be a part of something really big and potentially jaw-dropping, just leave me a note or send me an e-mail at kareemhalfawi@gmail.com
Recently unveiled at the Game Developer's Conference, the new OnLive gaming service is a rather unexpected surprise and if successful, could change the
The OnLive service is basically a "cloud" system, as in all the games are purchased and streamed digitally to your OnLive system. You won't have any physical boxes or discs for games. Although the PC gaming market is already moving in this direction, it still isn't as simple as buying a game for a Playstation 3, inserting the disk, and playing. OnLive aims to fix that by making it simple to start playing any available game immediately.
Although you won't be able to play PS3 of Xbox360 games on the OnLive service, the potential is in the future games. If the service is successful, no longer would developers have to create games for 2 consoles and have any manufacturing costs for disks. It would present a significant change in the direction videogames are headed.
The hindrance now is that the service requires an extremely fast internet connection, which everyone simply does not have. In the future, that will happen, but it just isn't completely feasible for everyone to buy into this service yet. But the potential is certainly there.
Nobody probably wants to wear a camera around their neck 24 hours a day, so the Microsoft SenseCam is likely not mass market consumable. I mean, who would want to wear something that large all the time? However, one thing that can be said about it is that the idea is sound, and if the tech can be minimized and perfected, the SenseCam could be something everyone would want to use.
The SenseCam is basically just a camera you wear around your neck, and it will constantly take photos of your daily life. Around 30,000 photos or "100 hours of your life" can be recorded.
Now, I know it would be pretty boring to watch somebody else's mundane life, but imagine if people used these things 30-40 years ago (hypothetically speaking), I'm sure everyone would want to know what their grandparents, great grandparents were like in their daily lives. I'm sure everyone's future children and grandchildren would be awfully curious to know what you were like in the world we live in now. The SenseCam has the potential to literally be history come to life.
Microsoft has published their first details regarding their new cell phone mobile operating system, and from an initial glance, it has plenty of potential to compete (and even outdo) the iPhone and its App Store.
Microsoft isn't going out to reinvent the wheel, and if anything, it's basically copying what Apple has already created with the iPhone OS and the App Store. Microsoft will offer their own app store and applications. However, Windows Mobile 7 isn't tied to a single phone, unlike the Apple App Store. When you think about the fact that Nokia, Samsung and LG will likely have phones running Windows Mobile 7, all of a sudden Apple has quite a bit of competition for their once unbeatable app store.
One of the most successful aspects of the Apple app store has been games. Microsoft has the potential to really outdo Apple in this regard. Microsoft will tie in their Xbox360 with Windows Mobile 7 and create games that can be played in the home and also on the go. They also have experience in creating games and a platform to make game developing easier. I can forsee the Microsoft app store being a better haven for gaming than the Apple app store.
In the end, Apple's head start in the market might be too much for Microsoft to catch up, but that won't stop it from taking a chunk out of Apple's market. Healthy competition is always beneficial to us, and who knows, maybe it will help Apple realize things like how stupid it is that the iPhone OS doesn't support Flash.
"we’re now able to go anywhere at any time, access information and communicate globally with a few key strokes or via a cellphone"
This installation gives participants the experience of being any place in the world they choose and immerse themselves in sights and sounds of that country/city - without leaving Harbourfront.
Participants will physically move themselves on their own "world route".
Using the technology already available at OCAD and Harbourfront.
A dedicated room will have a giant interactive motion sensor floor mat - on the mat is a world map.
By traveling on foot, participants select the city they want to see, by tapping on highlighted place names. For example, if they select London, England. The whole room - floor, walls and ceiling - will become immersed in London sights, sounds and culture. 360 degree panorama video of the Thames will engulf the room, you will hear boats and newspaper boys.
Walk around the room and there will be touch points where further interaction can occur, for example, touch a map and select Buckingham Palace, ideally the room feels like it is "flying there", footage required for this hopefully could be sourced from Google Earth - (it would be like being in Willy Wonka's Glass Elevator.)
I am inspired by the video effect used in this ad for Puma.
Participants are encouraged to document their own experience, thoughts and tips about these locations - AND their experience of the installation. By texting a message to a short code number it is then used on a rotating ticker feed. There will also be the option to leave a voice message, this could be played during the experience. The messages will be compiled onto a twitter account and be accessed anywhere in the world.
This addresses the theme of Globalocal by incubating the concept of world cultures, international travel, social networking.
Add some ideas to further this concept in the comments on this blog, or in class - please and thank you!
