Artist Richard Saja hijacks existing traditional fabric prints with his own rebelious emroidered graffiti. I like the idea of furniture becoming an actual work of art. The writters of the post which I first saw this on even suggest that you could even have a go yourself at adding your own embroidered graffiti on the item. I really like this idea, but starting with a blank canvas and treating the sofa as a kind of sketch book.
Found here
This device marks a real turning point in screen technology, and will change the way you view video and images in future! OK, so this actual device won't, but the technology that it is premiering will.
I met someone who has the priveledged possition to be given access to and test new technology for Sony and they are already using Sony's new OLED TV technology in their work (special effects for live performances) and say that it is amazing. Not only the high resolution but the way that the screen technology delivers the image in a way that renders black as pure black. Images will look far more realistic on this type of screen. The great thing is that they are far thinner than other screens, in this case the screen is only 3mm wide.
According to the BBC they are to go on commercial release at the end of 2007. The first screens will only be 11 inches and will cost around €1400, a fair bit more expensive than LED screens, but for professional use this still seems to make the technology viable until Sony develop cheaper and larger screens for personal use in coming years. As the screens are created using a form of printing this means that there will likely be little limitation in making the screens to any size. While people where showing off with their fancy 40 inch plasma's, they will be wowing us with full wall to wall screens in their living rooms in the not too distant future (seriously!).
These photos really caught my eye this week, in the current edition of Wired 15.09.
Shot by Daniel Stier, featuring people participating in scientific experiments that aim to seek out the physical limits of the human body. There is something very retro looking despite the hi-tech and advanced nature of the subject.
Check out more of Daniel Stiers photography here.
Not the most practical or safest way to get to work, but looks like a lot of fun, and may be a good way to over come traffic jams!
Just got back from Florence where I was a part of the team that put on this show. It was great fun! Enjoy!
The X prize foundation, the organization behind the prize, today launched a new prize for the Automobile industry. The prize aims to award the first successful car that achieves super fuel efficiency compared to todays typical production models, with the aim of breaking our dependence on oil with the aim of reducing environmental impact and global warming. The winners will receive a multimillion dollar cash prize. The winning car will have a fuel economy of at least 100 MPG (or equivalent), and must be viable for production of a run of at least 10,000 units.
The actual set of requirements to win the prize are posted here
The requirements have gone through many revisions and have been drawn up by industry professionals, but the final criteria is open for discussion and comments from the general public - so if you have anything to add you can do so via the Auto X Prize site.
About the X Prize Foundation:
"The X PRIZE Foundation is an educational non-profit prize institute whose mission is to bring about radical breakthroughs in space and technology for the benefit of humanity. On October 4th, 2004, the X PRIZE Foundation captured world headlines when Mojave Aerospace Ventures, led by Burt Rutan and Paul Allen, built and flew the world's first private craft to space twice in two weeks to win the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE. Because of the dramatic nature of the achievement, the X PRIZE Foundation is now widely recognized as the leading model for fostering innovation through competition. In October 2006, the Foundation launched the $10M Archon X PRIZE for Genomics for the first team to sequence 100 human genomes in 10 days."
Visit the X prize foundation site for more info.
Chemists at the Univercity of Washington have released a demo of a prototype pair of sunglasses that have lenses that can change colour. The lenses are adjustable by the wearer, who can change the colour of the shades by turning a small button on the side of the shades arms. The technology will be applied to shades where wearers may want to have shades for different conditions - such as skiers or riders of bikes and motorcycles. Traditional shades that react to the light to darken the lenses in bright conditions do not work when shielded from UV rays (which trigger the reaction), where as these user controlled shades would work in all conditions.
Thanks to Kimm for this link.
Read more here.
These guys at Essex Univercity have made a very realistic robot fish that is on show at the London aquarium.
This robot can do back flips - which is more than I can do! Mind you if you have the $1,200 to pay for the prebuilt kit, I would hope that it could! The kit is available from online store
The robot, called Robonova is created by Hitech Robotics, a family run robotics company in Korea.
They have video of their robots in action here.
Actually this futuristic watch design invents a new way of displaying time - even though it would be pretty annoying after a while. I like the story that they have created to explain its unusual design.
The year is 2157, Alien Robots have taken over the Earth. Our cities lie in ruin. The last surviving humans have retreated to hidden caves and bunkers to escape the constant patrols by KX-400 Combat-bots. The remaining resistance fighters send out scouting parties for much needed supplies, but their job is extremely dangerous and few survive. Now, thankfully, they have the Arkon Industries SCOPE. This wrist mounted device accurately detects the power signatures given off by the Combat-bots allowing our patrols to evade the enemy. Powered by 2 lithium cells the SCOPE can locate nearby threats and indicate the direction and distance of the target. But on earth it has been adapted to simply tell the time.
Found on TrendHunter, read more atTokyo Flash.
Sony is to launch a new 3D virtual wolrd community, similar to Second Life where users will be able to create a pesonal avitar, explore a high quality 3D world, purchase space and personalise it with purchased or made objects. Sony’s ‘home’ community will be hotly anticipated, as the machine has extremely powerful processing power, so the experience should be visually far more impressive than that of Second Life.
Sony’s move is a response to the recent explosion of social networking and so called web 2.0 sites that are eating into the time spent playing on games consoles. But to be seen will be just how they will learn from Second Life and other social networking sites to make the experience truely compelling and advantagous to the user.
Each person will have their own appartment to which they can invite friends and in which they can chat, play and share video, music and other content that they have on their Playstation. Their trophies from completing games will be hung on their walls. This is very likely to take the experiences that have made MySpace so popular, but deliver them in a far more compelling and enguaging way.
No doubt seeing how brands have been keen to jump on the Second Life phenomenon, there will be a queue of companies looking for new ways to be featured in Home. Appealing to the commercial potential for advertising within this 'game' Sony have designed it so that dynamic advertising can be delivered through the virtual environment including hi quality video.
The software will be downloadable for free, and is due to launch in late 2007.
I think that this one will be a very important one to watch when it kicks off later this year.
Read on here on BBC, but read more here
This is a freaky video. The Hirose Fukushima Robotics lab have developed an amphibious snake-like robot named “ACM-R5” that can maneuver both on ground and in water surging its long body in such a realistic fashion. Seen on Trend Hunter.
More here
A very cool video that uses typed text written on screen in various scenarios to explain some of the simple principles of Web 2.0. One of the things that interest me most about the end message is that not only is it each of us as individuals that will contribute to the way information is arranged and ordered, but also that each action we make, be it clicking on a link, tagging and article, copying and pasting etc, each of these actions will be fed into a computerised system that will learn based on our actions. The relationship between human action and computerised automated actions is a facinating area of developement. As computers get more and more powerful, their levels of intelligence will superceed our own. Thanks to Gaz for the link.
"Fresh ideas" and "being green" were the top qualities of this year's Fortune 'most respected' companies award winners.
Read more on CNN
Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, writes a very frank article on the future of digital music distribution and the role of Digital Rights Management. Giving three possible outcomes, he describes the difficulties of allowing music bought from the iTunes store being able to be played on other manufacturers music devices, the option to leave things as they are, and the option that the music lables could ditch DRM completely. He comes out strongly in favor of this third option, and claims that DRM does not and will never work, and makes the interesting point that 90% of all music sold (i.e. music sold on CD), is sold without any form of DRM.
Read the article here.
Maybe these girls could get some commissions! Chat with them now, before they get taken down!
Stay tuned. This just might be the NEXT thing. From the founders of SKYPE, this new project Joost (previously code named THE VENICE PROJECT aims to revolutionise television (and the way we consume TV content), in the same way as Skype revolutionised the way we make phone calls.
It delivers FREE content in broadcast quality. I have heard from beta testers that there is no lag or buffering!!
Sign up to be a beta tester here.
Diesel have just posted a new video on YouTube and their own website Diesel.com, that introduces their new provocative Global Warming Ready advertising campaign. Diesel asks...'Is Global Warming such a bad thing?' Leaving the viewer to decide, they claim to be ready just in case. So after the Stern report, here is Diesel's report into the effects of Global Warming...the findings -sunglasses recommended for the warmer times ahead! If it is going to happen, you may as well look stylish.
But will it still play my original Playstation One games?
Visual effects by methodstudios
Posts
All Comments
