The Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI) 2012 now happening in Kingston (Canada) is streaming all of its activities live from http://tei-conf.org/12/Main/LiveVideo.
I’m trying to upgrade the video plugin to spit out HTML5 videos for the blog and the RSS feed. I’m patching some code together, to have HTML5 + flash that degrades well, and in a way we don’t have to batch update the short tag syntax currently in place. I don’t have any iOS devices or tablets to debug this, so let me know (in the comments) if this works on your non-flash/html5 preferred gizmo. Thanks!
/Camille
IxD1 students are working with sound these days and this little Sony UK write-up fits the topic very well. Sony UK released some material about binaural sound: a few videos, a short How-To PDF and 100 free sound samples. There is absolutely nothing about binaural sound, but I find it interesting that a big corp like Sony pushes this to the world. Sure their material screams “buy Sony gizmos”, but the idea of focusing on (binaural) sound and simple photography is quite nice in a way.
Do know that we have two sets of binaural microphones/headphones in the Interaction Workshop if you want to experiment with this. And we have a lot more audio gear and software if that’s your thing.
Article: http://www.sony.co.uk/discussions/community/en/community/photography/blog/1546
An interesting product to train and enhance human capabilities. The glasses (curved LCD lens) flicker and block some of the visual information to train your brain and sensorimotor skills. “the gadgetry improved an athlete’s ability to recognize an object in the central field of vision. Many improvements were seen in as little as two days.”
Read the full article from Wired.
“LIGHTITUDE” is the theme of the 2012 CLU foundation contest. This year’s theme invites participants to reflect on lighting the communities near the Polar Circle. Due to their high latitude these communities are subjected to particular lighting phenomena. Since light is an essential part of every living organism, it or its lack thereof has a profound effect on humankind. Can these isolated communities benefit from a more adapted artificial outdoor lighting solution to satisfy their particular Nordic needs and identities?
These are some of the questions that the CLU foundation members invite the participants from all walks of life to reflect and create upon.
Free registration. 5000$ in prizes. Deadline is September 3rd 2012.
You can also watch a full walkthrough, courtesy of black-suited and semi-moustached Mr. Corning junior.
Man this last video is well done, but a bit spooky when they freeze the scene and the man-dude shows us how it works. Impressive video, yes, but how uninteresting is this for our sense of touch. I should stop my PhD and start a glass cleaning business :-)
Focus Forward is an unprecedented new series of 30 three-minute stories about innovative people who are reshaping the world through act or invention, directed by the world’s most celebrated documentary filmmakers.
Five are published so far, 25 more are coming. Lovely.
Pay attention all you awesome kids in doing your Masters in Interaction! :P
Here is (yet another) article about the rules of thumb to remember when designing for touch. Be careful out there… users can get hurt.
Great mobile designs do more than shoehorn themselves into tiny screens: they make way for fingers and thumbs, accommodating the wayward taps of our clumsy digits. The physicality of handheld interfaces take designers beyond the conventions of visual and information design‚ and into the territory of industrial design. With touchscreens there are real ergonomics at stake. It’s not just how your pixels look, but how they feel in the hand.
Read the article here.
Why do we love tiny flying robots? I’m not really sure, but seeing a swarm moving around makes me smile.
The Super Bowl, edition XLVI, is coming next weekend. While it is entertaining to watch big guys in tights running into each other, or mega stars signing and shaking it like there is no tomorrow, my preference goes to the commercials that the sporting event is quite famous for. With crazy air-time fees (~3.5 millions for a prime 30 seconds), ad agencies and creative bureaus are giving all they have to produce the most catchy/funny/weird audi-visual pieces. I agree, often it is big corporations packaging the same marketing crap under a shiny coat of “creative edge”. Nevertheless, there are pretty amazing people coming up with these commercials, and their work is truly inspiring, not only in the cleverness of the storyline, but also with the production challenges. Coming up with a clever, catchy and not-seen-before idea for a boring car commercial, and convincing your client it’s worth investing millions is not easy (I assume). Anyway, enough chit chat, some commercials and teasers are already out, see this page. This vimeo user has a pretty good archive of the best commercials (not Super Bowl limited). Otherwise, google away and you’ll find plentiful instances.
Post your favorite(s)!
The Spotify Box has been selected finalist for the IxDA Awards 2012. The winners will be announced at the Interaction12 conference in Dublin next week. In the meantime, it would be awesome if you can help out and vote for the People’s Choice award. The competition is tough, but we’ll see what happens.
Thanks for your help! Let’s hope for the best!
From the TPB’s blog:
We’re always trying to foresee the future a bit here at TPB. One of the things that we really know is that we as a society will always share. Digital communication has made that a lot easier and will continue to do so. And after the internets evolutionized data to go from analog to digital, it’s time for the next step.
Today most data is born digitally. It’s not about the transition from analog to digital anymore. We don’t talk about how to rip anything without losing quality since we make perfect 1 to 1 digital copies of things. Music, movies, books, all come from the digital sphere. But we’re physical people and we need objects to touch sometimes as well!
We believe that the next step in copying will be made from digital form into physical form. It will be physical objects. Or as we decided to call them: Physibles. Data objects that are able (and feasible) to become physical. We believe that things like three dimensional printers, scanners and such are just the first step. We believe that in the nearby future you will print your spare sparts for your vehicles. You will download your sneakers within 20 years.
So here is a new term: physibles. I like it :-)
http://thepiratebay.org/blog/203
[via Jan Borchers on the Sketching mailing list]
I’ve been working at a place called R/GA in New York for the past 3 months.
It’s been an intense and overwhelming new journey for me. I’ve had to work harder than I ever worked before and I’m learning a lot of new things about the commercial World of practice and theory. Working in an ‘interactive agency’ is very new compared with working at Ergonomidesign, Teague or the other more traditional Industrial Design consultancies we are familiar with. Our education in UmeÃ¥, due to its industrial design roots, prepares us to practice in an industrial design setting. Working in the agency format gives me a chance to compete among other backgrounds and skills and its actually quite challenging. The focus is a lot more on narrative, web, mobile, visual design and interaction design plays an ever-evolving role in their work equation.
A team I work closely with has just launched one of their biggest, top secret projects in recent years. It’s called the Nike+ Fuel Band and it monitors your body activity. It’s pretty cool albeit not the first in its space.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TtfJAyjkkGs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT50eLLxPco&feature=relmfu
What I know is how much intensity and work it took to make it happen.
The team had to sweat blood for a year to bring this to market on schedule. Will see how it performs with fingers crossed and get me one asap!
SIDeR 2012, Intertwine and Play
March 22-23 2012, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
The conference theme for the 8th SIDER conference is Intertwine and Play. Intertwining traditional services with new media forms and engaging play is the core challenge for future interaction design. In all parts of the work of an interaction designer, from gathering requirements, to performing methods and creating products, it is important to take respect to what is already there, from organizational and theoretical level to spatial and practice level. At the same time, by playing and experimenting with traditions, and intertwine them with new media and new technology, interaction designers will be able to inspire and visualize new perspectives of the future.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Papers must not exceed 4 pages (~2000 words) in length following the standard ACM format. The papers will be presented orally by authors on stage for 10 minutes, and the presentations are grouped in sessions with other related papers. There will also be a limited number of opportunities for exhibiting projects as an alternative to presenting on stage.
TOPICS
Suggested topics for papers include but are not limited to:
Human-Computer Interaction, Ubiquitous Computing, Multimodal Interaction, Tangible User Interfaces, Aesthetics of Interaction, Experimental Design, Game Design, Design Methods, Interaction Techniques, Social computing, Information visualization, Design cases, Mobile computing
DEADLINE
Papers must be submitted as a pdf-file to sider2012[]chalmers.se before February 1st 2012, with the subject header: SIDER Submission. The email should be sent to all of the co-authors, so that we can reply to all of you. The submitted papers must follow the standard ACM format. Notice of acceptance will be sent out March 1st at the latest. You are welcome to contact the conference organizers for additional information at sider2012[]chalmers.se.
OPTIONAL
For a better experience of the conference we would also like you to attach to your submission:
a photo along with a short bio and links to relevant portfolios or social network profiles of the authors where conference participants can find out more information about your design interests (the photos should be individual and at least 200×200px), a cover photo/image of your project.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Johan Redström, Staffan Björk and Johan Peitz. More information here.
REGISTRATION
The conference fee is 300 SEK and includes printed proceedings, coffee & cake, lunches and a conference dinner. Register page.
http://www.cse.chalmers.se/research/group/idc/ituniv/sider12
The V&A museum in London hosted an exhibition named Power of Making earlier this Fall.
Making is the most powerful way that we solve problems, express ideas and shape our world. What and how we make defines who we are, and communicates who we want to be.
For many people, making is critical for survival. For others, it is a chosen vocation: a way of thinking, inventing and innovating. And for some it is simply a delight to be able to shape a material and say ‘I made that’. The power of making is that it fulfills each of these human needs and desires.
Those whose craft and ingenuity reach the very highest levels can create amazing things. But making is something everyone can do. The knowledge of how to make – both everyday objects and highly-skilled creations – is one of humanity’s most precious resources.
Check more videos and the curator’s text about the exhibition.
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/p/powerofmaking
Too bad it is over now, I would have like to see it. I ordered the book as a consolation prize.