If there's one thing that REALLY annoys me it's wires! Yeah, it seems silly since we think that we need them. In my mind, even as a kid, I thought there must be a way to transmit electricity with out wires or at least figure out a better way to power our appliances and gadgets. Well, as luck/fate would have it, Marin Soljacic at MIT has finally got the technology at a point where it will be widely available in the next few years!! I first heard about this a couple years ago on MIT's Technology Review website (it's one of my favorite sites! yeah, so what I'm a nerd.) but at the time it was big and impractical. In addition to just making sense and being more convenient, this could have major impact from an environmental perspective. Of course, companies will not stop putting wires on products anytime soon but in the future we will hopefully see a dramatic decrease in the use of PVC & copper for wires. Wires actually account for a major percentage of PVC consumption. There's also the environmental perspective of just how an area looks. whether in your house or on the street, wires are an unsightly eyesore. Think about how much better Tokyo will look without the wires everywhere!
I could go on and on about this but read about it more on his company's website- WiTricity
Just a couple of months ago I posted THESE amazing flat speakers coming out of Taiwan. And now I see these that were actually published even earlier. I think the ones from Taiwan will actually sound better though but still these are amazing!
A groundbreaking new loudspeaker, less than 0.25mm thick, has been developed by University of Warwick engineers, it's flat, flexible, could be hung on a wall like a picture, and its particular method of sound generation could make public announcements in places like passenger terminals clearer, crisper, and easier to hear.
Lightweight and inexpensive to manufacture, the speakers are slim and flexible: they could be concealed inside ceiling tiles or car interiors, or printed with a design and hung on the wall like a picture.
One of the best things I've seen crossing boundaries between music and design is RFID Radio concept by someone by the name of D.A.R.Y.L. His idea is that these paper radios with RFID chips will be programmed only to play a certain station. You would need to subscribe to the station via iTunes and have a special speaker also with an RFID tag. I guess the radio would have a passive tag and the desktop speaker would have an active tag? Honestly, RFID is probably NOT the best technology for this product but it's still a great concept and is along the lines of Yuri Suzuki's Graffiti Radio concept which is also brilliant.
Check out more of D.A.R.Y.L.'s creations at Real Tomato
WOW! This is essentially an interface that requires only a computer, a webcam, a printer and a lot of ideas. The D-Touch sequencer and drum machine are available for FREE (both Mac and PC versions). Just watch the video and definately go to their site. Simply amazing.
After a long week of frustration and hard work TheRecordPlayer.net is completely revamped! So what's the big deal? Well, for someone that barely knows any programming I did a pretty good job hard-coding CSS & HTML for a custom domain FTP blogger site. What does that mean in basic terms? A total pain in the ass! Apparently, you're very limited to what you can do with blogger on a custom domain unless you really tweak the template code...which I learned isn't truly a "template". So, unfortunately I can't use any cool XML stuff until I move the site over to a new service in a couple months. For now I am satisfied but will continue to add some features and tighten things up along the way. If any of you know a good work around to include a good tag/label cloud and solid code for pagination on an FTP blog, please let me know!! I tried everything I could find for both features and nothing worked.
So, starting tomorrow we'll be back to our irregularly scheduled programming.
Thank you for your patience! (it was worth the wait)
These images are from the virtual aerial tour done for New York by Australian based firm PixelCase. They specialize in this kind of work and I have to say that I'm super impressed. It's quite amazing really. The distortion features are cool but for some views can be a distraction. Anyway, imagine what the future of this will be!
This is one of the best things I've seen in the past year. At first glance it just seems like some cool graphics and sound...fair enough. What's fascinating though is that every piece in this series was made using the Processing programming language. The project is curated by the design studio Universal Everything (which does some really nice stuff) and musician Freeform. This is only 2 short clips from the series. Here's an excerpt from the Advanced Beauty website:
"The films embrace unusual video making processes, the visual programming language Processing, high-end audio analysis and fluid dynamic simulations alongside intuitive responses in traditional cell animation. Each artist was given the same set of parameters to work within; to start, finish and exist within a white space, creating a seamless coherence, all sculptures sharing the same white environment."
This is pretty questionable. Wouldn't a Windows notebook be made of glass versus an Apple that could be made of paper from...you guessed it!..Apple trees.? As a company Apple has become equivalent to Microsoft on some levels but they still make a superior OS and fancy looking machines. This is damn good animation though.
Thanks to tdw for letting me know about this digital graffiti wall by YRWall. I love it when graffiti can transcend the streets and reach more people. This type of installation has HUGE potential and I'm sure we'll be seeing more of this in the future.
This is kinda dope. Unfortunately, the testers in the video couldn't really do anything but it has a lot of potential and looks like a lot of fun. It's not quite on the level of the Tagged In Motion project I posted back in the summertime (HERE) but, still this is quite impressive.
Sure, this video isn't as weird as some of the other weird videos I've posted but this caught my attention. It's funny and almost pretty good at the same time. It's a strange convergence of pop culture, retro and old computer geek.
No, not the animals from Madagascar (and other places). I'm talking about this new music interface. Lemur is like a combination of Tenori-On, Monome and iPhone. Ok, maybe that's a bad description. But the retro-future interface is definitely inspired by Tron and Star Trek. From what I could see in a few short videos, this interface could add to the changing face of music for the better. It can basically do about 5zillion things. (but no more than that) Just go to JazzMutant's website to learn more. And watch the video below..and watch more of the ones on YouTube, you'll be sold on it instantly. You'll see that you can customize it to your liking, add more screens, control EQs, adjust sensitivity, make music on the fly, etcetera...It's DOPE and I want one...
