VJ Touch Screen Sorting Stations for Ford, Geneva 2007

Large touchscreens using a custom interface being used to organise and edit content collected from kiosks around the show. The output then forms the backbone of the 'movie of the show'. This may be adapted on the fly by the VJs. Mike thinks the touchscreen is from Fujitsu and the app is Director. Note the touchscreen is only single input. Source: Mike Williams

Google - Book Search

There's been a lot of chat (and plenty of legal wranglings) about this project and this Economist article reminded me that I really should investigate.



Good nugget:

"That humans are involved is beyond doubt (fingers are visible in the corners of many pages on books.google.com) although this is uncharacteristic of Google, which has a fetish for purist technology."



Do look at Google Books.

Carrier bags - I know it's not strictly digital

Vinçon (gorgeous Spanish homewares store) have just unveiled their new paper carrier bags:







Source: Sarah Brownrigg

Extreme Train Surfing

Very interesting and exhilarating footage of German ICE train being ridden - top speeds of up to 300km/hr. And a sad ending. Worth a watch.

Coke-powered phones?

Scientists Invent Fuel Cell Powered by Sugar.



Source: I4U

Poster: Lego trains 1981 - 2003

If anyone was wondering where I found the invaluable resource which is currently adorning my workspace, the 'Lego trains 1981 - 2003' poster can be found here.

The Empire = ITV?

If you’re looking for another excuse to have a lightsaber lying around, I’ve got one for you. The lightsaber remote control. Having one of these means you’ll have the Jedi’s weapon of choice in your living room at all times.







Source: Slashgear

Wii contoller + industrial robot

You may note that comments on YouTube focus on the laggy the response times. This is because of the programming interface/solution and is recognised by the makers.

Getty Images - beta

The beta has been made available for testing.



New interface and new functionality:

- customise page to show only certain bits of content

- refine search using extra filters e.g. location



I haven't time to play with it at the moment. But if you do, please leave a comment with your thoughts.

Making the Digital house - ends tomorrow

1:1

Making The Digital House

6 March – 20 March 2007

FINISHES TOMORROW!



It's just round the corner on Old Street.



The Digital House is produced using a detailed 3D computer model that contains all of the construction elements including every wall and screw hole which are pre-determined before the construction. This information is transferred to a CNC Router (Computer Numerical Control) which rapidly cuts out elements in engineered timber. These are assembled into lightweight hollow cassettes like big bricks of Lego, which can be filled with recycled newspaper to achieve a high level of insulation and air tightness.

TFL redesign preview

Transport for london are launching a shiny new version of the site with page designs based on customer research. Here's a preview

Firefox plugin extracts FLVs from youtube

This rather brazen plug in called Media Pirate will extract an FLV file from sites such as youtube, google video and myspace video. It even adds a 'Steal the website content' link to the context menu.

PS3 answers Second Life

GDC 2007 Sony's Phil Harrison demoed the current state of the Playstation Home.

Quite a bit more sophisticated than Second Life. Certainly a more attractive interface and experience.

Lots to leverage as well e.g. game profiles and communities.

Warm up

Carton designs for soup from Nusa.

Watch wish list

Could this be the ultimate designer watch? Created in the 80sby Yaacov Agam - a kinetic and op-art pioneer. This is part of a limited edition watch series for the Movado Time Museum Collection. The only other artist to produce a watch for Movado was Andy Warhol with his "Times/5." Featuring anthracite colored steel straps, a mystery dial of multi-colored glass discs rotating circles/semi-circles overlaying dotted hands for time, it sold at auction in 2000 for $10,925. Bid here Can we we come up with the EIG top ten branded watches at some point?

Stick Remover

Game sourced from Edge magazine.

Clever use of simple physics to create something quite addictive.Like the instructions as well.

V&A - Friday Late Animate

As part of the V&A's late-night Fridays, the next one up on 30th March focuses on animation: Friday Late Animate.

I hereby christen you...

Austin Gipsy Fire Appliance.



Man names daughter after car.





This is said Austin btw.

The History of Microsoft in Tag Clouds

A timeline-based tag cloud browser that analyses 30 years of Microsoft press releases, interviews, and speeches - hard to explain in words, but really good. Link here.

Edit: The same thing has also been done with the words of US presidents. Over 365 documents were analysed for this one.

Opensource Cinema

A Swarm of Angels - Cinema 2.0 or just a new way to get you to part with £25?