Published on July 10, 2006
The “iBar” (guys.. really? iBar?) has a translucent top with projectors installed inside. It can detect objects on the surface and projects graphics linking them together… You really have to check out the video to see it in action. I’d love to know exactly how they are doing the surface detection. I couldn’t help but think of my own project (video) from my freshman Industrial Design studio last semester… and how I wish I had this level of sophistication in it.
At any rate, check out the link for a video and pictures.
read more | digg story
Published on July 10, 2006
My friend April just asked me for a way to resize an image without Photoshop. There are numerous ways to do it, but it reminded me of an online photo editing site I had seen that used a really slick AJAX interface. I started searching and after a few hits found it.
Snipshot (formerly called Pixoh) is a completely online photo editing tool that lets you edit images up to 10 megs in size. Snipshot lets you resize, crop, rotate, and do some simple color corrections like contrast, hue, and saturation. You can upload an image from your own computer or you can plug in a url for an image that is already up on the web.
There are plenty of free image editors out there. Gimp and Picasa come to mind right away. However, if you ever find yourself in a computer lab or at a friend’s house without the software you need, Snipshot could be a life saver.
Tags: web2.0 AJAX graphics
Published on July 5, 2006
Big thanks to Henry for linking me to this through del.icio.us. BusinessWeek Online has a great gallery on the 2006 IDEA Awards, awards recognizing the best industrial design of the year. Some of the products are things we see every day, while others are extremely exotic. I particularly like Samsung’s portable projector (pictured right).
Tags: design
Published on July 1, 2006
“German car giant Volkswagen has turned fiction into reality by unveiling a fully automatic car which really can drive itself - and at speeds of up to 150mph. It can weave with tyres screeching around tricky bends and chicanes, and through tightly coned off tracks - without any help or intervention from a human. “
It’s not a huge surprise to have a car that can navigate gradual turns at set speeds, but a car that can race at full speed around a handling course, constantly on the edge of losing control? That’s amazing! This car beat VW’s own engineers’ driving abilities.
Throughout history, most automotive technology is developed on the race track. How long will it be before we see manufacturers truely battling it out with engineering, racing autonomous cars in conditions that no human could ever withstand? Formula racers are already subjected to up to 8G’s while cornering. What happens when we can engineer racing vehicles that have no human to keep alive?
Of course, that’s the entertainment end of things. Now it doesn’t look very long at all until we get into a car and tell it where we want to go. That is, if we feel like we can trust corporations and the government to leave ultimate control in our hands at the end of the day.
read more | digg story
