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innovation
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I just found a great explanation of it online. It’s everything you need to know about “the cloud” but were afraid to ask. And now I’m posting it here for you. Go ahead. Print it out. Take it with you. Whatever you want. Just uh, next time ASK when you don’t understand something, OK? Geez.
The latest Did You Know video will blow your mind with interesting facts and figures about the social web and how it’s changed your world. Here’s a uber-post of all of them, starting with the latest (version 4). (Also, see below for some screen grabs if you don’t have the time to watch).
Version 3:
According to Digital Inspiration, This video is part of the popular “Did You Know” series that originally started out as a PowerPoint presentation [Shift Happens} and, once people caught on, the presentation was converted into a video by xplane. You can watch all the previous versions of the “Did You Know” series here or download source presentations and high-res videos from the Shift Happens wiki.
Version 2:
And finally, Version 1:
Screen grabs:
The hands on the screen belong to James Paterson. He is using “Rhonda”, a 3D drawing tool developed by Amit Pitaru circa 2003.
The first half of the video shows James doing a drawing start to finish. In the second part James is cycling through various previous drawings, created between 2004 and 2005. For the last several years Rhonda has been shown in galleries, museums, festivals and conferences. We are excited to finally release this video online (about time!).
Freakin’ awesome. Sign up for the beta here.
Great post from mr micropersuasion on how to stay on top of all new thats fit to geek. Of course, you’ll have to be a slave to your RSS feed like we are - so why not just follow me on Twitter and get the daily digest? (Ahem). Either way, this list should get you started. Rock on…
from the site
Want to know what’s cool and emerging? Me too. That’s why I subscribe to dozens of blog feeds from cool companies large and small. They include all the Google blogs, the Twitter, Friendfeed and Facebbook blog and many more.
I have decided to share these with you by rolling them up into single feed, which you can browse or subscribe or even download here…
360° video isn’t new, necessarily (there are a lot of programmers who have done created similar executions). But this is the first time I’ve really seen making video like this get so accessible, so quickly.
Meet Yellowbird. BTW, their URL is “yellowbirdsdonthavewingsbuttheyflytomakeyouexperiencea3dreality.com” (which is awesome in it’s own right).
By using a Google Streetview-like camera, a system with six lenses, not as a photo but as a video camera, an all-encompassing picture is captured. From the point where the images were recorded, the viewer can look in any direction, let his eyes wander through the crowd, or stare at the ground or the air, which makes viewing a video an experience without boundaries.
Oh, and as soon you figure out how to strap your 6 iPhones together with Duct Tape, you’ll even be able to embed and share all your 360 videos with your nerdy, jealous friends.
You’re welcome. :)
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.
Holy Mother of Awesome. Meet CloudContacts.
You send them that stack of business cards you are collecting in a box and they scan them. THEN they connect each card with social networks and backing it all up on a cloud server so you can always get to your contact information.
Here’s an interview with Allen Stern (the guy behind CloudContacts), from CenterNetworks in New York. He tells us how he does it, and even spends some time talking about the latest web stuff, too. Nerdy!
The image below might look like a regular YouTube video player but the interesting part is that the YouTube video clip will play just fine even if you disable (or completely remove) the Flash Player from your browser.
How? The next major release of HTML, dubbed HTML 5, will include several new tags for embedding <audio> , and <video> as well as several other graphical types of content in web pages. These new tags will let you play video files in the browser without the Shockwave Flash plugin. Yay!
Currently, your browser needs a plugin to play embedded multimedia content. For instance, you need to install Adobe Flash Player for watching videos on YouTube while the QuickTime player is required for viewing movie trailers that are available on the Apple website.
Visit youtube.com/html5 to see the HTML 5 video tag in action.
Note: You need either Firefox 3.5, Google Chrome or Safari 4 to view this video. If you attempt to go with an older browser, it won’t be able to understand the content that’s wrapped inside the <video> tag. You’ll most likely get some kind of error message upon arrival. That said, HTML 5 still looks very interesting and exciting.
Enjoi!
Here’s the first episode of Richard Branson’s PitchTV, which is airing onboard Virgin Atlantic planes during June.
Do you want to a chance to be featured on PitchTV and get your business idea seen by thousands business professionals from all over the world? If so, just upload your short video to PitchTV.
Here’s Richard Branson’s introduction to PitchTV:
“As part of it’s 25th Anniversary celebrations, Virgin Atlantic is launching a new show, PitchTV, which will air onboard and will also be available online here.
We’re now inviting entrepreneurs in search of investment and exposure for their business ideas to upload short video pitches.
The community here will vote for their favourite video pitches and each month, the winning videos will feature as part of Virgin Atlantic’s PitchTV show which will air on their inflight entertainment system – gaining exposure to the hundreds of business professionals who regularly fly Virgin Atlantic. Anyone interested in hearing more about the most popular entrepreneurs’ business ideas will then be able to get in contact and maybe help take their ideas further.”
Italian food is famous for being cooked fresh with fresh ingredients, but an entrepreneur wants to popularize his automatic vending machine that will cook pizza with fresh ingredients, including the dough.
A new pizza vending machine will cook an entire pizza with fresh ingredients, flour, water, tomato sauce and ingredients in less than three minutes.
Claudio Torghele, 56, become successful by selling pasta in California, and now wants to sell his automatic pizza vending machines in Italy.
Rad.
Be sure to peep 4:30.
via neonarcade
Ooof. Have a read of this excerpt from the German Publication The Local:
A Saudi Arabian inventor has filed for a patent on a potentially lethal science fiction-style human tracking microchip, the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) told The Local on Friday. But the macabre innovation that enables remote killing will likely be denied copyright protection.
“While the application is still pending further paperwork on his part, the invention will probably be found to violate paragraph two of the German Patent Law – which does not allow inventions that transgress public order or good morals,” spokeswoman Stephanie Krüger told The Local from Munich.
The patent application – entitled “Implantation of electronic chips in the human body for the purposes of determining its geographical location” – was filed on October 30, 2007, but was only published until last week, or 18 months after submission as required by German law, she said.
Monday, Germany declined the patent application.
But the device, naturally, still exists. Scarier still, we can only presume it’s already in use. Patenting it would just make anyone else liable if they copied and sold it.
Sometimes technology goes too far…
These necklaces, by Mike and Maaike, were created when the design team, who google searched for the most famous jewelry in the world, came up with a bunch of low-res images that caught their eye. They then stole, doctored, and transfered these images onto leather, creating their own “priceless” creations. The result is an intense visual experience, and while the intricacy of the jewels are gone, the effect is not lost.
The line can be found at velvetdavinci.com and mikeandmaaike.com
Having a virtual personality and social network online is as important for todays and especially tomorrows Netcitizen as having a physical presents in this world. The line between online and offline is getting blurred with todays communication tools that allow us to stay connected almost everywhere, anytime.Nadya Peek, an MIT Media Lab student, created a unique interactive dress to close the gap between our presents in the physical and virtual world. Her project Caché aims to bring interactivity, a virtual poke into the physical presents via clothing.
And it’s awesome.
But how cool would it be if you rigged up a lil’ arduino in there and automatically posted a Tweet or a “Poke” to the person on Spacebook or MyFace just by touching them. Ok, now I’m just crazy. Enjoi!
Stop reading this and go to Shoot The Banker. GOgogogo!
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.
Yay!
Oh, and turn up your audio. :)
Markkit is a web2.0 text highlighter. Drag’n’Drop the markkit yellow pen into your browser toolbar. Whenever you want to highlight text in a web page, click on the markkit bookmarklet. Head’s up: Markkit works only with Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome and Apple Safari. (You know, browsers that don’t suck.)
Want to try Markkit right now?
Click this puppy right here then drag over any text on my site! →
Enjoi.
One man’s trash is… well, another man’s trash that he keeps in a clear plastic cube. New York City, perhaps the most interesting city in the world, undoubtedly has some interesting trash. One artist decided why not box it up and sell it all over the world to people who want a unique and fitting piece of the city. Justin Gignac of NYC Garbage artistically arranges soda cans, receipts, club flyers, parking tickets and other junk and signs and dates each cube of trash.
Get your own here.
Meet Tweenbots - A nerdy and fun project of an ITP student in NYC. Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal.
In New York, we are very occupied with getting from one place to another. I wondered: could a human-like object traverse sidewalks and streets along with us, and in so doing, create a narrative about our relationship to space and our willingness to interact with what we find in it? More importantly, how could our actions be seen within a larger context of human connection that emerges from the complexity of the city itself? To answer these questions, I built robots.<p>
Given their extreme vulnerability, the vastness of city space, the dangers posed by traffic, suspicion of terrorism, and the possibility that no one would be interested in helping a lost little robot, I initially conceived the Tweenbots as disposable creatures which were more likely to struggle and die in the city than to reach their destination. Because I built them with minimal technology, I had no way of tracking the Tweenbot’s progress, and so I set out on the first test with a video camera hidden in my purse. I placed the Tweenbot down on the sidewalk, and walked far enough away that I would not be observed as the Tweenbot––a smiling 10-inch tall cardboard missionary––bumped along towards his inevitable fate.
The results were unexpected. Over the course of the following months, throughout numerous missions, the Tweenbots were successful in rolling from their start point to their far-away destination assisted only by strangers. Every time the robot got caught under a park bench, ground futilely against a curb, or became trapped in a pothole, some passerby would always rescue it and send it toward its goal. Never once was a Tweenbot lost or damaged. Often, people would ignore the instructions to aim the Tweenbot in the “right” direction, if that direction meant sending the robot into a perilous situation. One man turned the robot back in the direction from which it had just come, saying out loud to the Tweenbot, “You can’t go that way, it’s toward the road.”
The Tweenbot’s unexpected presence in the city created an unfolding narrative that spoke not simply to the vastness of city space and to the journey of a human-assisted robot, but also to the power of a simple technological object to create a complex network powered by human intelligence and asynchronous interactions. But of more interest to me was the fact that this ad-hoc crowdsourcing was driven primarily by human empathy for an anthropomorphized object. The journey the Tweenbots take each time they are released in the city becomes a story of people’s willingness to engage with a creature that mirrors human characteristics of vulnerability, of being lost, and of having intention without the means of achieving its goal alone. As each encounter with a helpful pedestrian takes the robot one step closer to attaining it’s destination, the significance of our random discoveries and individual actions accumulates into a story about a vast space made small by an even smaller robot.
for a sneak peek at more robots (coming soon) look here.
