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. :)
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.
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.
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 genius flash-in-the-pants and optical-recognition lovers that go by the name Squidder have been showing off two new systems that tie augmented reality into Twitter. Their first project is a t-shirt with a FLAR barcode that, when recognized by a webcam-enabled computer, pulls up the encoded Twitter username and displays their latest tweet as a video overlay. Rediculious. (That means awesome, Mom.)
Augmented Reality T-Shirts:
(Please visit here for more info on the Augmented Reality Shirt Project.)
The second task, meanwhile, is cutting out the barcode and having the system recognize users by face. Redonkulous. (Even more awesomer than rediculous.)
Facial Recognition meets Twitter:
(Please visit here for more info on the Augmented Reality Shirt Project.)
Hokay soh, the facial-recognition system isn’t totally working; it currently doesn’t actually recognize individual users, just any face moving into frame. However software that can do that is already out there, and merely requires some more time and effort pulling everything together.
Of course, Twitter is just one source of information; Squidder is also suggesting that the system could call up a Facebook profile, or in fact just about anything.
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.
