Posts by tanagramster

Augmented Reality App sees “markers” embedded in wallpaper.


We’re experimenting with Facebook advertising. Fan us and stick it to our credit card!


Tim and I are back from the land of imagination.

Menlo Park is a mystical place. A place of unicorns and giants. Behind Tim (pictured above) is a tree it would take 4 people to wrap their arms around and it is sitting in someone’s front yard. Tim and I were consistently amazed by the sights, sounds, smells (Jasmine everywhere) that permeate this land of imagination. It’s no wonder so many amazing things are born here.


Minority Report-style Mobile Interface

Minority Report-style Mobile Interface

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Some of the folks over in the Ishikawa Komuro Laboratory at The University of Tokyo have prototyped a Minority Report-like touchless gestural mobile interface that, in addition to the ubiquitous air typing, also allows the user to interact with with the interface in 3D.

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Robot Kung Fu!


Seriously, until if we had a cat, it’d be nervous right now. It would need to learn Kung Fu pronto!


Why is Tanagram so fascinated with Robots?!?


Because robots, like em or not, are your future. They do amazingly boring tasks perfectly, indefinitely, so you don’t have to. We think automation is exciting and mechanized automation plays a big role in that future. We also have project concepts that will rely heavily on our durable new friends. We’ll share more on that when we can.

For now know that this particular robot is solving a number of real-world supply chain issues including handling a dynamic range of pallet objects and addressing potential impending recall issues by simplifying the warehousing architecture. Simple and beautiful.


Tentacle robot!


Tentacle robot!

These Doc-Ock-like robotic tentacles by German tech firm Festo are given the fully cheesy industrial film treatment, but there is tons of cool here as well. For starters, the tentacles are covered in touch sensors (or something similar) and can be manually guided. The project is a continuation of Festo’s biology-inspired robots like the fun AquaJellies.

More:

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A tip-of-the-hat to IDEO: Toy Lab for their partnership with Sesame Street and the resulting cool iPhone apps.

We like to pretend we compete with the ginormous-brained folks at IDEO but the truth of the matter is they have no idea who we are.. (we pretend we will sneak up on them and… BOOO!) Regardless, we are huge fans of the IDEO: ToyLab Balloonimals app and are now quite smitten with Elmo’s Monster Maker. It’s obvious they did some real thinking on the user experience (UX) as it is dead simple and perfect for kids who just want to touch things (like noses). Throw Elmo into the mix and you’re guaranteed to witness a kid-neuron supernova. 

Nice job on this guys, and thank you. My daughter is going to love playing with this. You can get yours here: http://ideotoylab.com/sesamestreet/ It’s $4 on the AppStore (ouch). 

One last thing… Can we get an iPad version? Thanks!


Chicagoans, join us in supporting a great local institution the St. James Food Pantry. $10 goes a long way! http://bit.ly/cKKnuE

St. James Food Repository

Awarded “Most Outstanding Agency in 2009″ by the greater Chicago Food Depository – photo on their Facebook page.

See them here.


More news on our new neighbor! More Brewing In Town: Haymarket Pub and Brewing

 

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Image Credit: swanksalot

The past year has been something of a nirvana for local craft beer fans, as their local options increase with the openings of Metropolitan Brewing, Half Acre Beer Company and Revolution Brewing. If all things go well, a fourth microbrewery/brewpub will be joining those ranks by late summer.

Construction is currently underway on Haymarket Pub and Brewing, in the former Bar Louie space at 741 W. Randolph. The project is a partnership between Pete Crowley, senior brewer at Rock Bottom Chicago, and his friend John Neurauter. We’d been hearing rumblings for weeks about Haymarket and Crowley, who’s also president of the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild, was more than happy to fill us in on some of the details.

Crowley said that Haymarket will focus on “classic Belgian and contemporary American ales and lagers paired with hand made sausages, pulled pork, pizza and rotisserie chicken.” There are plans for an outdoor beer garden, full bar, dining area with pool tables and games. About 600 square feet downstairs will be allocated for a barrel room for aging and blending. The centerpiece of the pub will be a walk through kitchen and brewery that leads to a “drinking and writing” theater. This means that, when Haymarket opens its doors, the long running and popular Drinking & Writing series with Sean Benjamin and Steve Mosqueda will have a home. Crowley is the “brewer” for Drinking and Brewing.

Thanks @timothymills! This is awesome.