During my internship at Microsoft I have to work with Microsofts Visual Studio a lot. It is a really nice software for programmers and developers, a bit hard to get for designers. But once you got it, coding makes much more fun in Visual Studio than for example in Flash. Especially cool is a auto completition feature. means you don’t have to type all the command, just the beginning and Visual Studio automatically completes the rest of your command. So you are way faster in coding, you produce less code errors and the best feature is that it proposes all possible commands that you could type. Makes it fun to try out new kinds of commands you didnt know before, and you learn a lot more about your programming language while coding. In a way it is similar to vvvv (and you know that i am in love with that software) because in vvvv you also can see all your commands (nodes) and try them out.

anyway… here is the actual purpose of this post:

FlashDevelop is a actionscript editor. and its doing all the stuff that i described in this post. I think you should really try it. The Flash internal actionscript editor is not a really good one, everybody will tell you that. but until now i havent found any real good one. Flash Develop seems to change that. looking forward to do my first project with this tool.

Read comment

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fcnzam_R9c4]

Leave a comment

For those of you who (still) enjoy 3D modelling, here is a newer, more advanced build of Rhinoceros 3D for the Mac platform.

Rhino blog

Read comment

NodeBox is a Mac OS X application that lets you create 2D visuals (static, animated or interactive) using Python programming code and export them as a PDF or a QuickTime movie. NodeBox is free and well-documented.

The interactivity is still doing babysteps, but TUIO and the Wiimote are supported.

Have a look if Actionscript or processing is feeling too hard for you.

NodeBox

Read comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJCUslNUR2g]

Leave a comment

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESDzYYl0__s]
Kyma X + Wiimote

It could be fun/interesting to try similar things this semester. Johnny Lee from CMU also has great apps and tutorials with Wiimotes.

Leave a comment

How do we create something thats original? Or is originality overrated? When everything has been done before and the ‘Classical’ died the second it was born (and didnt believe in Rebirth). In such a World, how does one go about the process of creating something new? I think this is fascinating to discuss.

Thanks for the (much needed) rant Mikko! To describe the irony of the correctness of your words – I wrote a 500 word reply before my Mac hung on me and I had to restart. :)

Before I begin mine, I’d like to point out that my posting the earlier article on ‘why Apple doesnt do conceptual projects’ was not an endorsement of Apple or its philosophies in any way. I’m glad it provoked a response like it did from you. I hope it provokes more thought from others.

We are working in a World (especially in the US) where everyone seems smitten by the iPhone. The ‘iTune-ness’ and ‘cover-flowness’ of things leaves me sickened at times. Consumers are usually willing to cuddle the well oiled, muscled champion without actually realizing that ‘The Champ’ was just a series of non-design related factors that led to Apple’s success today. Steve Jobs, Marketing, hard work and more marketing. Oh and lets not forget the ‘best designer in the World’ (acc. to Red Dot) – Jonathan Ive himself. There are valuable lessons to be learnt from Apple’s success. Originality is definitely NOT one of them. 

Most of the design language of Jonathan Ive is completely ‘inspired’ by the work of Dieter Rahms (refer to pictures above), and in terms of its interaction design – none of them were done by Apple originally. The touch screen, accelerometer-induced image viewers, the gestures that the iPhone and the ‘App-store’ are just very smart and efficiently synthesized experiences created by others. They did it first and did it better than the rest.

In conclusion, Apple is but the lesser of two evils, and I believe that as young and aspiring designers, We must try our best to ensure that we do NOT go down the path that has already been taken. There’s an old saying which goes – “Work to find out who your idols are, and then work harder to have the ability to overthrow them”.

I’m a Mac-user and I have no qualms in admitting its not the ideal experience. I’d like for someone to discover something new and different – something that really works! 

Until then… I’ll still buy the iPhone! Desire – it’s a strange thing.

Read comments

I’ve had it. Too much apples has made my stomach hard. Other people are waking up to this as well. After the initial ‘ooh-aah’s, iPhone is now getting really negative comments all over the world. Bad battery life together unstable software, clunky hardware and pretty slow interface (note: it looks fast, but the on-screen animations get very, very annoying after a while) start to irritate people. It still is a good piece of design and engineering in my opinion, but it’s also an extremely expensive toy full of useless fluff and cheap tricks (vibrating icons and on other mac products blinking lights etc., beer software, stock market, the list is endless)

This together with the fact that every single designer seems to be an Apple fanboy, makes me wanna cry for help. What designers think people need and what people buy, seem to be two completely different things. PC together with Windows is still the most popular platform on personal computers and iPhone is not as popular as the article below this post makes it appear (it’s in a very niche category of smartphones and you always need to buy a contract with the phone, so that Apple gets their money, very unappealing to most continental europeans, where you normally own the device and get the carrier separately. The marketshare is 6,5% of smartphones and about 0,1-0,3% of all the phones (doesn’t seem to be, by looking at all the hype it’s created, still it’s doing well)).

Apple is a designer-oriented brand. If would categorize and segment people, I would put it’s products together with all the other expensive crap that people with good taste buy. Give me H&M anytime rather than any similar clothes from a big-name brand. Some people have ridicolous testimonials how their life is a lot better, when they switched to a Mac. If this true, then people have weird values. With all this talk about ubiquitousness, and making things invisible the exact opposite has happened. People praise the hardware/software that was supposed to be hidden and inobtrusive. Also they are not that simple to use. It took me half an hour to figure out how to change songs on an iPod and my big fingers do not go together well with the small dial.

Remember designers: Apple is not the end-all solution. It definitely is a step in the right direction, but most of all it is just a marketing gimmick.

Read comments

Everyone has a favorite “concept car.” Whether it’s the ‘54 Firebird, ‘64 Stiletto, ‘80 Epcot or ‘88 Sunraycer, these “flights of imagination” all have one thing in common: they weren’t for real.

General Motors had no intention of selling these cars, or cars that were close in form or function. They were largely “concepts” detached from reality or economics. It’s even debatable if they have advanced the art and science of producing cars in ways measurable by subsequent sales. In fact, over the years, while GM was busy creating concept cars, its Asian counterparts were working overtime selling cars that real customers here and elsewhere actually preferred topurchase. After losing over $50 billion in the last three years alone and its debt closing on junk rating, analysts are now wondering if the once-mighty GM will be able to avoid bankruptcy at all.

more…

Leave a comment

Play!!!

Leave a comment

Just to collect them in one place, eh?

Software

Processing

Expression Blend

like Flash, but for human beings. You can develop windows applications, or silverlight applications for web or use it with phidgets for physical computing. Very easy to make complex programs.

Quartz Composer

Mac-users can find it on the OSX disc. Visual programming language like Max/MSP

Isadora

Applescript

Funnel

is a toolkit to sketch your idea physically, and consists of software libraries and hardware. By using Funnel, the user can handle sensors and/or actuators with various programming languages such as ActionScript 3, Processing, and Ruby. In addition, the user can set filters to input or outputs ports: range division, filtering (e.g. LPF, HPF), scaling and oscillators

action-coding x funnel x gainer i/o #00 from Shigeru Kobayashi on Vimeo.

Fritzing

is an open-source initiative to support designers and artists to take the step from physical prototyping to actual product. We are aiming to create a software in the spirit of Processing and Arduino, that allows the designer/artist/researcher/hobbyist to document their Arduino-based prototype and create a PCB layout for manufacturing.

Blender

Flash

EyesWeb

Pure Data

vvvv

Virtools

Max/MSP/Jitter

Scratch

Scratch is a new programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art — and share your creations on the web.

Scratch is designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills. As they create Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also gaining a deeper understanding of the process of design.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxDw-t3XWd0]

Openframeworks

is a C++ library for creative coding.

made with openFrameworks from openFrameworks on Vimeo.

GoblinXNA

is a platform for research on 3D user interfaces, including mobile augmented reality and virtual reality, with an emphasis on games. It is written in C# and based on the Microsoft XNA platform. Goblin XNA inherits some of the goals of the earlier Goblin project, but with a shift in emphasis toward core 3D user interface functionality, leveraging the existing functionality of DirectX 3D game engines and development environments. The platform currently supports 6DOF (six degree of freedom) position and orientation tracking using marker-based camera tracking through ARTag with OpenCV or DirectShow, and InterSense hybrid trackers. Physics is supported through BulletX and Newton Game Dynamics. Goblin XNA also includes a 2D GUI system to allow the creation of classical 2D interaction components.

BuildAR

is a software application that enables you to create simple augmented reality scenes on your desktop. BuildAR provides a graphical user interface that simplifies the process of authoring AR scenes, allowing you to experience augmented reality first hand on your desktop computer. All you need is a PC, a webcam and some printed patterns.

ARToolKit

is a library for creating augmented reality applications. It does not run by it self, but Blender and BuildAR and vvvv use it.

ARTag

Hardware

Arduino

Gainer

Gainer is an environment for user interfaces and media installations. By using the Gainer environment, the user can handle sensors and/or actuators with a PC on various programming environments such as Flash, Max/MSP, Processing and so on. The basic concepts are:
The user can use it for creative work from prototype stage to final output stage.
Using a breadboard allows the user to learn by mistake.
The user can build their own I/O module from components.
The user can choose a configuration from various configurations (software and hardware).
Open source software and hardware.

Wiring

is an open source programming environment and electronics i/o board for exploring the electronic arts, tangible media, teaching and learning computer programming and prototyping with electronics. It illustrates the concept of programming with electronics and the physical realm of hardware control which are necessary to explore physical interaction design and tangible media aspects.

Make Controller

a full featured input/output controller that is simple and robust enough for beginners, and powerful enough for experienced developers.

Using the Make Controller, you can:
Control motors (stepper, servo, and DC)
Switch lights
Measure temperature, distance and other values
Detect people/movement
Control things from your desktop or laptop
and more…

Basic Stamp

Propeller

I-CubeX

create your own interactive product prototype, responsive display environment or alternate musical controller ! The I-CubeX environment enables you to do just that. It is designed to enable you to use sensors for controlling multimedia content. It can also be used to obtain sensor data for (scientific) analysis. With the I-CubeX, translate sensor signals with high resolution into MIDI messages.

Gumstix

Small embeddable computers. Pretty cheap and really powerful. You can have a ready packaged version or just the motherboard.

BlueSense

BluePD introduces Pure Data to the world of physical computing. With BluePD you can design your program visually using the popular Pure Data package. BluePD is equipped with a powerful minicomputer which can execute your patch. This allows BluePD to physically control your setup without any attached computer. BluePD has a special port to connect multiple BlueSense modules. Expensive.

Lego MindStorms

This is a terrible post, sorry.

Read comment

Getting into the degree project mindset I found this interesting blog about maps. One curious entry is this portable route finder from 1920s.

Read comment

A design competition for Walt Disney Imagineering division. If you want to push your storytelling skills to new heights, this is for you. Deadline is January 30, 2009.

If you have a passion for creative and innovative design, here’s an opportunity to work with one of the most creative organizations in family entertainment. Created and sponsored by Walt Disney Imagineering, the ImagiNations Design Competition offers opportunities for diverse students to showcase their talents. You can win a 10-day all-expense-paid trip to present your project to a panel of Walt Disney Imagineering executives and have the opportunity to compete for the “Best in Show” awards. This incredible opportunity will provide participants with insight into Disney’s creative process, and learn what it takes to succeed in an innovative organization. Additionally, all qualified applicants will be considered for Internship opportunities with Walt Disney Imagineering.

Imagineers are challenged to build on the Disney legacy of great storytelling to pioneer new forms of entertainment through technical innovation and creativity. The ImagiNations competition encourages you to do the same! Past winners of the competition have gone on to serve internships at Imagineering and some have become full-time Imagineers.

http://disney.go.com/disneycareers/imaginations/

Leave a comment

Four talks are available so far. Lift always has a great selection of speakers/talks. Check them out online: Adam Greenfield, Bruce Sterling, Sarah Marquis and Dan Dubno.

Leave a comment

Evan Roth, is working on a project that will be released soon – the pictures say it all, it’s a “carry on” communication system. These metal places contain messages which will appear when they are X-Rayed.

via MAKE

Leave a comment