First, I just came back from the UK with two iPads. They have been available in Europe for a long time, but not in Sweden. I couldn’t figure out a sensible reason, other than major lobbying from the swedish network providers. Anyway, we have two 16GB wifi-only units in the lab for your iPadding pleasure (see how happy the girl is on the product shot!).

Second, a HP Touchsmart 600 PC has been purchased for making multi-touch work more accessible and easy-going. The all-in-one solution computer provides multi-touch capabilities without the typical hardware setup: aligning camera, starting 3 applications to mashup everything, and fiddling with video filters. It’s not the best MT platform out there, but it was cheap.

Finally, we have received the Roland MDX-40A, a new small CNC machine/robot to take over the atom-world. The motivation for getting this type of machine is to experiment, play and push the boundaries of computer-controlled activities. How do you mix and blur the line between computation and the real material world: drilling 500 holes in a particular pattern, making PCBs without chemicals, engrave your portrait in a piece of wood, make a custom case for your next project, etc. It will take a few more weeks before it is fully operational, but the machine is finally here. Yeapi.

Some people think this is the future. I don’t think so. Please make sure this doesn’t become the way we deal with technology. Nice presentation video, but pretty lame ideas if you ask me. I know I’m quite harsh in my comment, but I know TAT has very clever people in-house, so I’m a bit surprised to see this coming as new and the future. I’ve seen a mirror-browsing project 4 years ago (students from Malmö amazingly), device stretching is a long-standing dream for many device manufacturers, and multi-devices sharing is at least 10 years old.

Source

A lot of people are quick to point out that Arduino is missing a graphical environment, something a bit easier than writing lines of code and missing a semicolon here and there. Modkit aims to solve this issue to some extend by proposing an online editor where you can drag and drop blocks (inspired by Scratch, same developer), build your ideas and upload to an Arduino board. One of the great feature that was not present in the early version is the code editing. You can now go in Code View and edit the code, flip back to the graphical representation and voilà, it’s updated. There is a Kickstarter campaign for the project, so feel free to contribute if you want/can.

I’ve seen a few other tools and solutions around graphical programming environment for Arduino. Most of them are in alpha or beta phase, so expect to hear more on this topic in the coming months. We’ll give Modkit a spin this fall semester if you have a course with me!

Check their website and blog.

Check out the product page for all the nifty details.

TEI (Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction) is a really great conference. For 2011, they are starting a Design Challenge competition only for students. The venue is Funchal, Madeira in Portugal, not bad! Here is the full call for participation:

Always wanted to fly, zap your enemies with lightning, or own an invisibility cloak? Now’s your chance to apply your design and engineering skills to achieve your dreams. TEI 2011, the fifth international conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction, is delighted to announce its first student design challenge, which will focus on superhero costumes and accessories. More information is available below and on the design challenge website: http://www.tei-conf.org/11/participation_/design-challenge/

Looking forward to seeing you (and your superhero alter ego) at TEI 2011!

IMPORTANT DATES
October 31st: Entry deadline (a simple email with details about your team, nothing actually due)
December 10th: TEI early registration deadline (confirm challenge participation by registering)
Dec. 10th-Jan. 22nd: Project development
January 23-26th: TEI conference: design presentation

PRESENTATION, JUDGING and AWARDS
Projects will be presented at a special runway event held during TEI 2011. Each team will have 5-10 minutes to dazzle the crowd with a demonstration of their costume in action. This presentation will be modeled on a fashion runway show, so teams should arrange to have someone wear and demonstrate the costume in person.

We will award cash prizes of $1000 each in three categories:

• Inventiveness
• Quality of execution
• Presentation and style

All TEI attendees will vote to elect the winners in each category.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

See all the details on the TEI 2011 website

http://www.psfk.com/future-of-health

PSFK’s Future of Health Report details 15 trends that will impact health and wellness around the world. Simple advances such as off-the-grid energy and the introduction of gaming into healthcare service offerings sit alongside more future-forward developments such as bio-medical printing. It is our hope that this report will inspire your thinking and lead to services, applications and technologies that will allow for more available, quality healthcare.

In the first half of the Future of Health Report, PSFK provides an analysis of the trends impacting healthcare around the world. We explore this future from the perspective of organizations, patients, healthcare providers and communities. We also highlight how technology and access to information play a vital role in the ways that people understand, manage and receive care. The trends identified within this document and the examples used to bring them to life are inspired by innovation from around the globe.

In the second half of the report, PSFK features concepts generated by the world’s leading advertising and design agencies in reaction to trends found within the Future of Health report. The parameters for the solutions were set by UNICEF, and were imagined with emerging countries in mind. Specifically, UNICEF identified the key challenges faced by community health workers around the world.

Check their 209 slides presentation or download the 70 MB document.

Check also Beyond the touchscreen: Projecting the future short article from the New Scientist.

The 3-day event combined a mixture of keynote speakers, student research presentations, workshops, interactive sessions and social events.

We had the pleasure to have Heather Martin, Zachary Lieberman and Erik Stolterman as keynote speakers for the event. The videos of these presentations are now available online for you viewing pleasure.

Visit the Ingredients In Gradients website for the full proceedings and some pictures of the event.

Sponsors

[via planet5d.com]

http://www.siggraph.org/s2010

Warning: epic and grandiose soundtrack :-)

Insanely crazy new computer graphics stuff.

You are what I can find on Google or Facebook

http://designswarm.com/blog/2010/06/13/portfolio-online-presence/

This content MUST be included in every design education I feel. UID should take that class too! Here are her slides.

And a few more on this post.

[source unknown, shared from a colleague at work]

There must be a reason why they did it like this: saving parts and costs, preventing unintended openings, safety (could be discussed), accessibility (absolutely not if you ask me), others. Let me know if you know that wee bit of knowledge. I’m very curious.