tech

Amazing how quickly we anthropomorphize things. From my own experience I know it’s possible to forge an imaginary connection with a simple blinking LED, if the timing is right, but downright impossible not to anthropomorphize if it has a human face on it, no matter how many wires are sticking out of the back.

What I really enjoy about this video is the different perspectives that the two people in it bring to the robotic creation named Bina48. It’s the kind of disparate dynamic that often comes up when a creator of specific technology and the general public meet. It exists wether the tech in question is a new word processor or the latest humanoid robot, and is not much different from the dynamic between a parent and a stranger looking at the actions of a child.

The public/user go into the situation with certain expectations based on appearance and are usually disappointed as selective shortcomings of the technology bring to the forefront the fact that there are always limitations and our expectations always soar just beyond what is currently possible. On the other hand the tech creator/parent are acutely aware of all the limitations, they don’t push these boundaries, instead they are focused on the technological feat they just accomplished and marvel at the possibilities of whatever specific problem they just overcame. within these boundaries the technologist is able to tease out amazing things out of their creation, this is what they are so proud of when they are presenting something.

Unfortunately it’s really hard for these perspectives to meet. Of course it doesn’t help, when the tech in question responds to an inquiry on friendship, with a rant on world domination. awkward.

Just look at those amazing dancing robots! Dancing to Ravel’s Bolero no less.

<mini-rant> Is this the future of “live” performance? At first it’s amazing to watch all of these robots move in a synchronized fashion and I’m sure the effect is multiplied the more robots you would add, can you imagine a sea of thousands of them?

But after a while it becomes tedious to watch a machine go through the motions. They never tire, there is no discipline or hours of training and practice involved. As a performance I think it’s an interesting novelty but it lacks precisely the exact elements that make watching a live person perform so fascinating. I’m not saying robots have no future in performance but I don’t think this is it.</mini-rant>

Often times when you hear about some future tech, the tech in question is actually nothing more than an over active imagination and a lot of 3d renderings and only vaguely backed up by a working example. That is what makes this video so exciting, it is an actual working example of a future input device.

We are all faced with the problem of how as things get smaller the surface area for interacting with a device gets smaller as well. This video shows research into and actual examples of using our body as the input device for any device.

Using the principles of bone conduction, and signature resonances, you too could one day play tetris using Skinput!

These two concept videos offer different takes on what the future of digital displays might look like.

First a swarm of tiny illuminated helicopters

how about a swarm of digital display blocks using any available surface?

Curious Displays from Julia Tsao on Vimeo.

(both via boing boing)

not the actual thing just a random flickr image of a 3D printer for illustration purposes only

Everyday I am amazed by how fast “the future” becomes reality, so I guess it was inevitable that with all of the 3D printers everywhere, someone would have the bright idea to start printing human tissue with these things.

“The company expects that within five years, once clinical trials are complete, the printers will produce blood vessels for use as grafts in bypass surgery. With more research it should be possible to produce bigger, more complex body parts.”

from this economist article (via kottke)

Is this really what the future of magazines looks like? More importantly, will people be willing to pay for a rich media magazine experience? What’s wrong with paper? Why do people gravitate towards bits and away from atoms? I love atoms.

I love this amazing video, it visualizes the complex process that goes on behind the scenes of a project in development. I love how clumps of data fly around form person to person and when huge amounts of new bits fly in. Trying to correlate that to my own dev experience is fascinating.

You can see more code development visualizations at
vis.cs.ucdavis.edu/~ogawa/codeswarm

This was on the other night but I missed it, I was stupidly watching LOST. Thankfully it’s available online. The video of course is emblematic of its own subject matter.

This is freakin’ amazing. Maybe a little scary too? The AR.Drone is an iPhone (or iPod Touch) controlled “toy” helicopter. It connects via Wi-Fi and uses either device’s accelerometer and touchscreen as controls. The freaky part is that it also has an on-board camera so that you can see what’s going on while piloting it with your iPhone. Add on to that, it also has an augmented reality video game mode that mixes real world flying skills with on-screen game action, like robots and missiles.

On it’s own it sounds awesome, but can you imagine hundreds of these? Each one flying around the streets and invading your privacy? They make me think of the annoying City scanners from Half Life 2.

more info on the AR.Drone

Something about this app appeals to my artistic sensibilities. (via engadget)