What is Next Nature?
With our attempts to cultivate nature, humankind causes the rising of a next nature, which is wild and unpredictable as ever. Wild systems, genetic surprises, autonomous machinery and splendidly beautiful black flowers. Nature changes along with us.
Posts Tagged ‘transparant-interfaces’
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Sao Paulo vs Billboards
The mayor of Sao Paulo decided that he was tired of the wildgrowth of billboards in the city. So he decided to take them all down (not personally). This creates a very pre (or post) Next Natural landscape. Watch a slideshow of it here.
Read a backgroundstory on the piece (International Herald Tribune website)
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Die Hard – Vilcus plug dactyloadapter
Many people get a kick out of a direct contact with AC power supply. To that end, people normally use U-shaped fragments of bare wire, paper clips or even usual metal forks. All these gimmicks are unreliable, short-lived and, most important, tend to cause a short circuit or even an inflammation in the wiring. The Vilcus dactyloadapter (adapter for fingers) was especially developed for people who like closing the electrical circuit with their own fingers. Vilcus does not consume power by itself, so it can be left plugged into the power outlet until the next session.
Sold from 1 april 2007 at ThinkGeek, related: Grow Your Own 1up Mushroom.
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Augmented Cognition
The Augmented Cognition System will help the brain adapt to data on computer-screens. If there’s too much/little data, it will decrease/increase the information for you. If the data-stream is of high complexity, it will chop up the information in order to prevent stress. Mike, it’s amazing!
augmentedcognition.org | video -
iBiogenetics
In 1998 at the introduction of the iMac , Apple declared that the “i” stood for “internet”. Apple later adopted the “i” prefix across its consumer hardware and software lines. Losing its original meaning, the “i” became a “sub-brand”. In January, at the Macworld San Francisco Conference 2007, Apple Inc. introduced the iPhone.
In reaction to the introduction of the new prestigious tool, some nice “i”mages were created by both iLovers and iHaters. Check this photoshop-contest: -
VeinViewer
Talking about transparent interfaces: this machine uses infrared light for detecting vains under the surface of the skin. Watch video.
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Skinover
In “Dutch dress up” (a travelling exhibition of accesoires by 40 Dutch designers), Silvia B is presenting new glove-models showing a specific skin peculiarity. In general clothes tend to hide/protect what’s underneath and give the owner a certain status. These “sculptures to wear” proove that your skin is the most direct and personal medium, telling who you are. All you need to do, is show some.
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Crowd counter
Crowd counter is a piece of software able to track moving features within a video clip. It works on the assumption that points that move together are most likely part of the same entity within the crowd. Another version of the crowd counter uses information about the direction of individuals’ movement to estimate where they are looking.
videos: bees inside hive | subway station | open area | another one
Via: newscientisttech.com | related post: human swarms -
Power aware cord
The Power Aware Cord transports electrical power while simultaneously visualizing energy usage. Electrical transfer is represented through glowing pulses, flow, and intensity of light. The creators believe that expressing the presence of energy through light can inspire people to explore and reflect upon the energy consumption of electrical devices in their home.
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Snoil
Snake, the video game that came out in the mid-to-late 1970s gained popularity in the 1990s for its inclusion on some mobile phones. Perhaps the reason why Martin Frey (Berlin) – inventor of what he calls “Sensitive Skin Display based on Ferrofluid”- dedicated the oily-display to the game and named it: “Snoil”.
video: freymartin.de
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Sketch furniture
Is it possible to let a first sketch become an object, to design directly onto space? This is a question that Front Design have just asked in their project Sketch Furniture.
“The four FRONT members have developed a method to materialise free hand sketches. They make it possible by using a unique method where two advanced techniques are combined.
Pen strokes made in the air are recorded with Motion Capture and become 3D digital files; these are then materialised through Rapid Prototyping into real pieces of furniture.”
Started in Stockholm in 2003, this four women design group have been working in Japan for a number of weeks on this project. During Tokyo Design week they will show the process of making Sketch Furniture and the final pieces of furniture at Tokyo Wonder Site 31 October – 5 November. -
Release – messages from the deceased
‘Release’ is a product that terminal patients can use to leave audio messages for their relatives, for after their death. People living with the notion that they will soon die anticipate what they will miss and what they expect their relatives to do in the future. They thus create life after death, and continue to be part of the lives of their relatives in a more extensive way than would normally be the case. The design consists of a transparent box with three cans on it that function as speakers. Once a message has arrived from the deceased relative the speakercan is pushed up by the device. The living relative can pick up the speaker and hold it against his ear to listen to the message in an intimate setting.
Release is developed by Bas Groenendaal, student at TU/e Industrial Design, who during the design of the product bumped into ethical questions like: When does someone want to speak to his relatives after death? What are the moments the deceased wants to speak? And, how long after death does one want to be heard?
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Visual Kitchen
This concept is a cutting board that has an integrated scale within a defined area on it’s surface. This allows a person to both cut and measure ingredients on the same surface with very little extra effort. There has been a tranformative trend in cooking based around the science of food. Central to this is the idea that precise measument leads to more possibilities for new flavors. Recipies will become more demanding, requiring simple ways to be precise in the kitchen.
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The World is not a Desktop
Mark Weiser (originally written for ACM Interactions).
What is the metaphor for the computer of the future? The intelligent agent? The television (multimedia)? The 3-D graphics world (virtual reality)? The StarTrek ubiquitous voice computer? The GUI desktop, honed and refined? The machine that magically grants our wishes? I think the right answer is “none of the above”, because I think all of these concepts share a basic flaw: they make the computer visible.
A good tool is an invisible tool. By invisible, I mean that the tool does not intrude on your consciousness; you focus on the task, not the tool. Eyeglasses are a good tool – you look at the world, not the eyeglasses. The blind man tapping the cane feels the street, not the cane. Of course, tools are not invisible in themselves, but as part of a context of use. With enough practice we can make many apparently difficult things disappear: my fingers know vi editing commands that my conscious mind has long forgotten. But good tools enhance invisibility.
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Instant privacy
Please leave me alone, I’m writing a message.
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Online gamers unmasked
Photojournalist Robbie Cooper captured images of gamers and their real-life selves. Here are their stories.
Bae plays a man because she thinks that male avatars have more charisma, she wants to “project strength”, and all the “masters” in the game have male avatars. She says if she had to play the game alone she wouldn’t bother. Initially, she was attracted to it because she thought it looked beautiful, but the social element has become part of her life. Her guild meets up regularly.
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Meta meta reality
Tringo is an online multiplayer game created by Nathan Keir (aka Kermitt Quirk) in December 2004 that runs inside the virtual reality platform Second Life. It is described as a cross between Tetris and Bingo.
Due to the popularity of Tringo there were a lot of compaints of Second Life players that the players of the Tringo game were anti-social, too much occupied with games and lost all touch with social life. That’s a weird reality in reality situation!
Related links: Second Life Online RPG Funeral Gets Ambushed Online gamers unmasked
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USB Flashbag
Another gadget. An usb memory stick that is capable of changing its physical size, depending on the amount of data it holds. when the device is about to blow up one can see the familiar error message on your screen: “there is not enough free space”. when switched off the flashbag remains pumped up, so one can estimate how much more pics, books & music albums can be transferred into it.
