This site is beautiful not because it is user centric, not because it is ornate or flashy (pun intended) but because it creates a compelling environment for the user to play and experience the song multimodally. I found it nearly impossible to not listen to the entire song just because I was so captivated by the simple visual aesthetic and interaction. I think this site reminds us that some of the most memorable interactions are presented in the simplest of gestures. Nice job to http://www.herraizsoto.com, http://www.badabing.es, and http://www.zumbakamera.com. We invite you to explore their portfolios for further treats. Great work!!!
If you do nothing else today spend 5 minutes and go to this site. You’ll need a printer, a pdf viewing application, a computer with a webcam (new Macs come with these by default), and a web browser with Flash 10 installed (you will get a prompt to install if you don’t have it).
Click on the “Launch Turbine” or “Launch Solar” link and permit Flash to access your camera (you’ll get a dialog box)
Hold up the printed PDF so it shows up in your camera view and prepare to be amazed.
This demo begins to show the promise of Augmented Reality on embedded display technology. What I mean is as displays get cheaper it will be more common for them to be placed in public or even private areas for your benefit. Imagine dressing room mirrors that can show you what you will look like without changing cloths. Imagine wearing digital accessories visible only to those who view you through a screen or through a Head Mounted Display (HMD). The possibilities are endless as we start to embed virtual objects in our reality.
Note: Tanagram has been awarded (we’re in the ‘negotiation’ phase) a grant to design a user interface concept for Augmented Reality. More on that soon!
Robert doesn’t know it but he’s inspired a recent UI project over here. We’re really into exploring dimensionality and particle physics and Robert makes both so very beautiful. Of course we can’t share what we are working on yet, but maybe you’ll see it soon. Maybe.
It’s Monday and after being inundated by political talking points and talks of our further receding economy, we think it’s time to play. While HelloSourSally is most definitely a viral marketing piece, it’s whimsical interaction and childlike experience make all the bad monsters go away. Enjoy!
During a recent digital expedition we stumbled across this gem. The folks at Georgia Tech are using augmented reality and behavioral modeling to build an interactive scenario where the human must resolve a conflict between a virtual married couple. The result is compelling and entertaining. So much so that the complexity of the system is almost transparent. Now they need to get their engineering students assigned to miniaturize the platform. You won’t find many people willing to wear a laptop on their back.
We, the city of big shoulders, enjoyed more than 10 inches of rain this weekend. It was a gift from our deadbeat friend Ike (so like him to stop by uninvited…). In past posts I’ve talked about how we as a society still have not realized the full potential of our coupling with Digital and unfortunately this story adds further proof.
The rains started falling sometime Friday night. By noon the next day, our basement carpet was soaked by water that was coming in through the outside walls. I, in my typical “I’m on a mission” manner, went out to Home Depot to purchase a Wet/Dry Vac and a sump pump. To my dismay, Home Depot was enjoying a run on all things flood related. People were fighting for bags of leveling sand. There were no vacs or pumps left in stock.
So I think to myself, “Here’s where we test Digital!” To maximize my effectiveness, I logged onto consumer reports on my iPhone (the site works well except for Flash callouts) and found out who made the best Wet/Dry vac for the money. It turns out it was Sears / Craftsman. So off to Sears.com I went. (I’m doing this all in my idling minivan in the Home depot parking lot). I was able to determine that Sears did have the model I sought in stock at a location that was 6 miles away. Yay Digital, I’m now more informed than the hordes of shelf stormers rampaging through Lowe’s down the street. Unfortunately this is where Digital falls down. Sears.com crashed my iPhone before I could purchase the equipment online. I was attempting to purchase the items with in-store-pickup because Digital (Sears really) promised me a special entrance intended for the Digital elite and a dedicated attendant to help me load my minivan. No such luck, however. Digital failed me again when the online store lookup became unavailable. Imagine this drama unfolding at slow-mo EDGE network speeds…painful. I decided to ditch Sears.com and try 411. Perhaps AT&T’s Digital could help? The number the system gave me (even with operator assistance) was a fax line. Not willing to give up I had called my wife, had her look up the store phone number online and read it to me and then called them directly. About halfway through the call with my wife, I start driving to the Sears location hoping to get one of the last items before the hordes pillage the entire place. I dial the number she reads me and I get a computer (hello Digital) telling me that they are experiences call problems and to call back another time. I call three more times and get the same thing.
When I finally get to the store, the hordes are just showing up. The store manager has got all of the pumps and vacs they have in stock and out on dollies ready for the mayhem. I grab my stuff and get in the line for checkout (starting to get long). When it’s my turn to pay I mention that the phone system is having problems and the register clerk tells me that it’s not the phone system it’s that there are only 4 people in this department and they are being overwhelmed by calls for vacs and pumps so they stopped answering the phone.
It’s clear that natural disasters stress all systems, especially digital. It’s also clear that Digital is still too brittle to be relied upon and is only providing marginal benefit when it works. I won on Saturday, but not without an extreme amount of effort. We at Tanagram are continuing our quest to make this better, but we need your help. Please?
File this one under, what the heck do I need this for?!? The Sony Rolly was dancing it’s fool heart out at the Sony Store at Old Orchard today. It definitely caught my (and Lulu’s) eye. But who would pay $400 for this thing? Watch the video and be amazed.
Second life has been setting the pace for virtual world development since 2003. We’ve been playing (er.. experiencing) since 2006. We even own land by the virtual sea, but the concept of a second or alternate world has always troubled us. Reality is already pretty complex.
Augmented Reality (AR) on the other hand, is exciting because we see a digitally enhanced reality as not only possible, but the key to supercharging the man / machine dyad. Imagine a world where digital daemon’s travel with us as friends, servants and guardians (I need to lay off the children’s literature). You don’t have to imagine too hard, the folks at Georgia Tech are already working on realizing part of this vision. The video above shows how digital can be superimposed over reality in a hyper-realistic manner. The last minute of video above is the most exciting, but heck, the whole thing is only 3 minutes long… Enjoy! (Thanks Stephanie)
First, if you don’t have a podcast (free) subscription to the video blog “Advanced Beauty“, get one right now!!! They are releasing 18 gorgeous digital renditions one at a time from various artists including our dreamboat Robert Hodgin. They are on the seventh video and so far all of the videos are great but Robert’s melts our head. Sure we might be biased, so check them out for yourselves and bask in their digital beauty.
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