Microscopic spies

Even your printer is spying on you! Hard to believe.
Intrigued by the new project of the Computing Culture's research group directed by Chris Csikszentmihalyi, I discoverd Seeing Yellow. So if you think that you need to hide your IP address and remove spywares, well maybe spies are around you in your tangible environment for a while now!

When you print on a color laser printer, it's likely that you are also printing a pattern of invisible yellow dots. These marks exist to allow the printer companies and governments to track and identify you -- presumably as a way to combat money counterfeiting.

Now Seeing Yellow has a tangible-antispyware available for you and this by calling your printer maker (and more)


Glass invaders designed by Sebastien Messerschmidt

Sensor doll as a music expression device

Yonezawa, T., Clarkson, B., Yasumura, M., and Mase, K. 2001. Context-aware sensor-doll as a music expression device. In CHI '01 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Seattle, Washington, March 31 - April 05, 2001). CHI '01. ACM Press, New York, NY, 307-308.

Abstract We present a sensor-doll capable of music expression as a sympathetic communication device. The doll is equipped with a computer and various sensors such as a camera, microphone, accelerometer, and touch-sensitive sensors to recognize its own situation and the activities of the user. The doll has its own internal “mind” states reflecting different situated contexts. The user’s multi-modal interaction with the passive doll is translated into musical expressions that depend on the state of mind of the doll.

Paper

An inventory of effects

Re-reading and re-discovering an old edition from 1967 of the Medium is the Massage by Marshall McLuhan, I spent quite a long time on this quote, trying to position the context in which this has been said, in which it is re-contextualized through the book, and how it applies today and what I can learn from it.

The discovery of the alphabet will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves...You give your disciples not truth but only the semblance of truth; they will be heroes of many things, and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing.--Socrates, "Phaedrus"

Prada: full of surprises!

Prada is full of surprises. Thinking of the Prada Marfa created by Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset, I found the Prada new web site enhanced by this pseudo artsy-culturally-challenged tech brain washing.

Floating homes

Jelly-fish 45 Habitat

The Jelly-fish 45 floating dwelling unit of 10 metres high and with a diameter of 15 meters is designed to accommodate up to six persons. It would be ideally situated in sea parks, atolls, bays and seas rich in flora and fauna. The Jelly-fish 45 allows the sea dwelling owners to live either above or below sea level in perfect harmony with the ocean environment.

It consists of five levels connected by a spiral staircase. The top level is 5.6 metres above the sea level and has been kept for study rooms. The next lower level is situated at 3.5 metres above the sea level and contains the night time zone while the next lower level at 1.4 metres contains the daytime zone with a kitchen and bathrooms. The lowest living level at 0.8 metres above the sea level is semi-submerged and has been kept for the guest room, bathroom and technical spaces.

The acrylic viewport globe situated at -3.00 mts above the sea level allows the occupants conmplete enjoyment of the submarine world. Its shape comes from the observation of jellyfishes that animate our seas with their transparent and weightless structure. The main carrying structural component of the Jelly-fish 45 is entirely constructed from plastic reinforced by incorporated fiberglass while the submarine globe is made from acrylic with a high compressive resistance.

Trilobis 65

Trilobis 65 Floating Home is a semi-submerged dwelling environment. Its 20 metres in length makes it an habitation by six people at sea. It is ideal for living in bays, atolls and maritime parks. The main aim of the project is to allow anyone to live in a unique environment through a self sufficient, non-polluting dwelling cell in unison with their ocean surroundings.

The shape of Trilobis 65 allows the annular aggregation of more
modular units, creating island colonies.

Apple and the patent business

A number of Apple patents have been released this week. Some of them deal with further refinement of touchpads (probably most of them represent versions which won’t make the light of day). One interesting example is a scroll touchpad for an iPhone that looks a lot like a present iPod. The innovation Apple suggests appears to resemble an old rotary telephone more than anything (everything old is new again!). Also, Apple seems to have got around to putting a patent application for the iChat interface - one version they show shows a three-way text chat. Another application has a description of a local area broadcast system for the iPhone (or similar product), allowing location/person specific information/applications to be sent to anyone in range. Imagine being in an Apple store/Ikea and being able to just click off on you iPhone the products you wanted and pay by credit card and then just pick them up at the counter. Mmmmh, we’ll see.

A multifunctional handheld device capable of operating in different modes includes a single input arrangement that provides inputs for each mode of the multifunctional handheld device. The single input arrangement includes at least an input pad that provides signals when touched or pressed. The input pad may for example be a touch pad. The input pad is divided into one or more input areas that change in accordance with the current mode of the multifunctional handheld device. The multifunctional handheld device also includes a display device that presents graphical elements to indicate the configuration of the input areas at the input pad. Each mode of the multifunctional handheld device provides a different configuration of input areas and graphical elements associated therewith.

Found on hrmpf and more is discussed and presented on the blog.

Don't click!

I discovered a nicely designed web site about human navigation on a computer screen through mouse clics. It proposes the another branch of the alternative: the site explores the control of the mouse clic through gestures.

Organic keyboard?

Organic keyboard? It is possible. Process explained on ifun

Bluetooth Virtual Laser Keyboard

Who needs touchscreens? This wireless laser keypad makes any surface a usable keypad, even in sunlight. Now you can use those skills acquired in 8th grade typing class, using all 10 fingers instead of the chicken-pecking that phone and PDA keypads require. It even duplicates the sound of keys so you can still get the satisfaction of a key well-pressed. And when you're really bored, project the keyboard on the sidewalk and have the neighborhood kids play hopscotch on it. Oh, the wacky text messages you'll send now!

Via Product dose and can be bought via Yahoo

The Virtual Laser Keyboard leverages the power of laser and infrared technology and projects a full-size keyboard onto any flat surface. As you type on the laser projection, detection technology based on optical recognition enables the user to tap the images of the keys, complete with realistic tapping sounds, which feed into the compatible Bluetooth-enabled PDA, Smartphone, laptop or PC

Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg is the first producer of free electronic books (ebooks). Project Gutenberg reached the following milestones as per dates:

1 eBook in 1971
10 eBooks in 1991
100 eBooks in 1994
1,000 eBooks in 1997
10,000 eBooks in 2003
100,000 eBooks in 2006


Don't miss the science-fiction bookshelf!


Illustration from Ullr Uprising by H. Beam Piper